Pocitarenco N., Aneziris O., Koromila I., Nivolianitou Z., Gerbec M., Maras V., Salzano E., 2025, A Systematic Literature Review on Safety of Ammonia as a Marine Fuel, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 116, 733-738.
In this paper a systematic literature review on safety and risk assessment at ports storing and transferring ammonia is performed. Regulations and ISO standards for ammonia safety have been considered. In addition, various classification societies have issued guidelines for assessing hazards and risks of ammonia storage at ports and during bunkering, such as DNV and ABS. International and regional maritime organizations have also contributed to the systematic understanding and enforcement of risk assessment methodologies. The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) provided an overview of the challenges and opportunities with particular focus on safety regulations and risk assessment of fuel merchant ships. The Green Shipping Programme (GSP), provided the regulatory framework and a comparison between ammonia and LNG as a marine fuel. Companies such as Alfa Naval, Hafnia, Haldor Tosoa, Vestas and Siemens have collaborated to explore the potential of ammonia as a marine fuel and have provided an industrial vision and a roadmap. The Seveso directive on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances, which has been applied to ammonia on land based installations since 1982, is also a valuable regulation for ports, where large quantities of ammonia may be stored. A literature review regarding scientific papers concerning risk assessment of ammonia at ships has also been performed and the aim is to investigate scientific and harmonization gaps of ammonia safety in the marine sector, within the EU.
