A milestone for the defossilisation of global shipping: the Belgian shipowner Exmar has put the “Antwerpen” into service – the world’s first ocean-going vessel powered by ammonia. At the heart of the ship works Swiss technology: the X52DF-A two-stroke engine developed by WinGD in Winterthur.
The 46,000 cubic metre carrier transports liquefied petroleum gas and ammonia – and now also runs on the latter. Because ammonia contains no carbon, its combustion releases no CO₂. The engine was tested by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea until January 2026, followed by successful sea trials in May. According to WinGD, the project brought together expertise from across the maritime value chain and demonstrates that ammonia propulsion has matured from a concept into a safe, reliable and commercially viable technology.
From theory to deployment
Exmar’s leadership stresses that ammonia propulsion is no longer a theoretical exercise – it is now in operation. The company plans to equip three further vessels with the engine, and WinGD has already received 40 orders for ammonia-fuelled ship engines. What looked like a niche experiment only a few years ago is rapidly becoming an industrial reality.
Why this matters for Power-to-X
Shipping accounts for roughly three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the hardest sectors to electrify directly. Ammonia is one of the most promising Power-to-X pathways for deep-sea shipping: produced from renewable hydrogen and nitrogen from the air, e-ammonia is a carbon-free fuel that can be stored and transported with established infrastructure.
One caveat remains essential: the climate benefit only materialises when the ammonia itself is produced from renewable energy. Ammonia made from fossil natural gas merely shifts emissions upstream. The “Antwerpen” solves the demand side of the equation – proving that ships can run safely and reliably on ammonia. Scaling up the supply of green ammonia is now the task for the Power-to-X industry, in Switzerland and worldwide.
With WinGD, a company from Winterthur is once again at the forefront of maritime defossilisation – after delivering its first methanol-powered engine in 2025, the world’s first ammonia-fuelled ocean-going vessel now sails with Swiss engineering on board.
Source: punkt4.info / WinGD