The World's Largest Car-Carrier Ship

A Chinese-Norwegian consortium has built the world's largest car-carrier ship to run on emission-free ammonia fuel.

Transcript

00:00Bigger, better and cleaner, this car carrier is set to revolutionize the heavily polluting

00:07freight sector by introducing ammonia fuel, which emits no CO2.

00:15Built in China, the 12 new flagship vessels will soon transport cars around the world

00:20under the Norwegian flag.

00:22It is the largest and most environmentally friendly car carrier ever built.

00:27And it is, in a way, defining a new era of vessels.

00:33When we ordered this vessel, there is nothing like it in the order book.

00:38Afterwards, almost all new orders have lots of similarities.

00:42These Chinese-built car carriers are for now running on liquefied gas, but they're set

00:47to switch to ammonia fuel by 2027.

00:52Shipbuilders are constructing this new vessel type around two huge fuel tanks in order to

00:56carry an efficient amount of ammonia for long distances.

01:01Special safety mechanisms are needed to ensure no leakage during storage, as ammonia can

01:07be highly toxic.

01:09When burned as a fuel, however, the combination of hydrogen and nitrogen, which are the component

01:14parts of ammonia, is completely emission-free.

01:17The whole value chain, from producing the fuel and then using it, you have no CO2 emissions.

01:26But ammonia comes at a price.

01:28A car transported with zero-emission fuels between continents costs a hundred dollars

01:33more than with fossil fuels.

01:35For this really to take off, we're actually dependent on having regulations and structures

01:42like carbon taxes and incentives that equalizes the cost between the low-carbon fuel and the

01:47regular fuels.

01:49And without those type of regulations, I think we will continue to use traditional fossil

01:54fuels for a long, long time.

01:56For now, the $1.3 billion project, mainly financed by Chinese investors, is setting

02:02new standards in Norwegian-Chinese cooperation.

02:05It'll be impossible to reach the climate goals without China playing a very important part

02:11in that transition.

02:13So we have a very strong interest in collaborating with China.

02:16Several other companies from the Scandinavian Kingdom have started to build their ships

02:21in China, an exchange of know-how and construction abilities which is changing our world.