These resources provide practical guidance to build the competencies and safety management organizations needed for ammonia-fueled shipping. 

Lloyd's Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub (The Decarb Hub) and the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS) have launched a new suite of resources to help shipowners, operators and managers prepare for the safe adoption of ammonia as a marine fuel. 

The resources include an Ammonia Process Safety Management (PSM) Maturity Self-Assessment Tool and a series of Ammonia Competency and Training Practitioner Handbooks. Collectively, they form part of the 'Fuel Safety Frameworks: Ammonia' initiative, developed jointly by the Decarb Hub and MMMCZCS, which brings together expertise from across the shipping, energy, fuel production, training and technology sectors. 

In preparation for ammonia-fueled shipping, real progress has been made in understanding the technical requirements for safe ammonia fuel systems. However, ammonia's hazard profile – particularly its toxicity – introduces safety challenges that need to be managed throughout a vessel's operating life. This points to a need for new approaches to operational safety management, training and risk control, both ashore and at sea. Vessel operators with more mature safety management organizations, staffed by teams with the right competencies, will be better placed to control ammonia’s hazards and reduce the risk of incidents. 

The Ammonia PSM Maturity Self-Assessment Tool aims to help shipowners, operators and managers evaluate where their safety management practices stand today and what might need to improve to achieve ammonia readiness. It uses a 5-tier maturity scale to identify weaknesses and to track improvements over time, helping to strengthen the controls that prevent ammonia incidents. As best practices for managing ammonia safety are still emerging in maritime, the tool borrows its evaluation framework from industries that already manage similar hazards, such as chemical processing and oil & gas. The tool is designed to support ongoing improvement rather than to check compliance, and works alongside existing regulations and requirements. 

The three Ammonia Competency and Training Practitioner Handbooks have been developed to help organizations understand what different members of the maritime workforce need to know, understand and be able to do when working with ammonia. They focus on three safety-critical areas: Emergency Response; Maintenance; and Leak Detection, Management, Isolation and Repair. Each handbook translates realistic ammonia operational scenarios into competency and training expectations for shipboard and shore-based roles, including seafarers, vessel managers, terminal personnel, shore support teams and emergency responders.  

These resources build on the partners' established Ammonia Phase 3 Competencies and Training project, which identified the capabilities and operational requirements needed to support the safe deployment of ammonia-fueled vessels. 

Tom Chitseko, Head of Risk and Safety at Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, said: “The industry has made significant progress in understanding the technical requirements for ammonia-fuelled vessels. People, processes and organisations must be equally ready. These resources provide practical guidance to help shipowners, operators and managers build that readiness and more systematically manage the risks posed by use of ammonia as a marine fuel.” 

Martin Eriksen, Head of Safety Leadership & Operations at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, said:  

“Ammonia asks for more of our safety management than the conventional fuels we're used to. A leak that would be a contained minor technical failure with conventional fuel can become an operational crisis with ammonia. This tool has been developed so operators don't have to work that out the hard way – it gives them a structured way to see where their safety management stands today, and what 'ammonia-ready' looks like in practice.

Additionally, the tool draws on process safety management having decades of track record in chemical engineering and oil & gas, handling exactly the kind of hazards ammonia introduces. This tool translates that experience into something maritime operators can use, in their language, against their operations."  

The Ammonia PSM Tool and Competency and Training Practitioner Handbooks are available at: 

• Ammonia Process Safety Management Maturity Self Assessment Tool | MMMCZCS

• Ammonia Competency and Training Practitioner Handbooks | MMMCZCS

The Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub (commonly known as The Decarb Hub) is an independent, non-profit initiative established through a partnership between Lloyd’s Register Foundation — a global charity with a mission to engineer a safer world — and Lloyd’s Register Group, a global provider of maritime professional services with over 260 years of heritage.  

This partnership brings together the Foundation’s public benefit mandate and focus on societal resilience, with the Group’s deep technical expertise and trusted relationships across the maritime industry.  

Positioned at the intersection of these two organisations, the Hub is uniquely equipped to accelerate the safe, sustainable, and human-centric decarbonisation of global shipping — combining neutrality with influence, and research with real-world application. For more information, go to www.thedecarbhub.org

The Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS) is an independent, not-for-profit research and development center established in 2020 with funding from the A.P. Moller Foundation. Our purpose is to guide and accelerate decarbonization of the global maritime industry.

Working with our partners, governments, authorities, public sector bodies, scientists, and organizations across the global maritime industry we aim to inform, de-risk decision-making, and spark real climate action.

We are technology agnostic and have no vested interest in specific decarbonization solutions. We explore free of commercial considerations and independent of partner strategies. As a result, we deliver independent analyses of how the transition is progressing and clear, data-driven recommendations for accelerating maritime decarbonization. On top we are maturing solutions to the most pressing problems across the maritime value chain, from fuels to onboard solutions, regulations, and financing.

For more information and overview of partners, please visit www.zerocarbonshipping.com