Japanese ammonia FPSO design obtains ABS approval

Japanese companies MODEC and Toyo Engineering Corporation have jointly obtained an approval in principle (AIP) from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) for a blue ammonia floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO) that will produce ammonia from the gas supplied by an oil and gas FPSO located nearby.

The FPSO is intended to produce and store blue ammonia (a type of ammonia that is produced using natural gas where CO2 emissions have been mitigated by carbon capture or similar technologies) by using associated gas that has been conventionally reinjected into the reservoir without specific applications.

The FPSO will also be equipped with a carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility to capture not only CO2 generated in the process of converting associated gas to ammonia (NH3), but also CO2 from gas turbine generators. This makes it possible to minimise CO2 emissions from the FPSO during ammonia production.

The hull, which will store and offtake the produced ammonia, was developed in collaboration with Mitsubishi Shipbuilding.