Japan's NYK takes delivery of ammonia-powered tug

Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and IHI Power Systems, in cooperation with ClassNK, have completed construction of a harbour tug powered by ammonia fuel.

NYK claims Sakigake is the world's first ammonia-fuelled vessel for commercial use. The NYK Group company Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha will employ the vessel in Tokyo Bay over a three-month demonstration period.

The construction of Sakigake was a Green Innovation Fund Project initiated in October 2021 under Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organication (NEDO). The aim of the project was to develop vessels equipped with domestically produced engines that can operate on ammonia.

Sakigake bears the name of an earlier tug that was completed in August 2015 as the first LNG-fuelled vessel in operation in Japan. After eight years of operating in Tokyo Bay, the first Sakigake underwent conversion to enable operation on ammonia fuel.

The newer Sakigake has a length of 37.2 metres, a beam of 10.2 metres, a depth of 4.4 metres, and a gross tonnage of 278. The electronics suite includes a Furuno radar.