The future fuels to be used by the maritime industry is hotly debated as waves of regulation look to enforce decarbonisation in the sector. In the 2-stroke market, the largest players have spread the risk of choosing the wrong fuel by bringing out units running on methanol or ammonia, Swiss-based WinGD tells The Motorship it is focusing on ammonia.

“Our ammonia-fuelled vessel is going to the shipyard in June next year and will be in the water by December or January 2026,” Volkmar Galke, executive director sales at WinGD, tells The Motorship. Hardly a secret that the company has been testing out its ammonia engine, Galke seems unconcerned about the noises concerning the lack of availability of ammonia as a marine fuel.

“Ammonia is everywhere, we may need to specify the cleanliness but it’s NH3 in general,” Galke says, referring to the widescale use of ammonia as a fertiliser. He added that the current tests at the test centre are using standard NH3, not specially treated and are “running well”.