“Our concept design is for an offshore facility partnering advanced nuclear power with an offshore ammonia production facility, which will create green ammonia from abundant seawater and air. No emissions would come from the plant,” said Dr Rory Megginson, Core Power’s Director of Analytics.

The facilities would use atomic power to desalinate saltwater, use electrolysis to create hydrogen and oxygen, capture nitrogen from the air and then combine the elements into ammonia using the Haber Bosch Process.

The company said that while the largest 17,000 ships may not find economic value in hydrogen-derived green fuels, that still leaves a significant portion of the world fleet that could benefit from using green ammonia.

In a report titled “The New Alchemy: Affordable green fuel from water and air – Floating advanced atomic production of green ammonia for shipping”, Core Power laid out its concept of combining marinised atomic power and a power conversion system on one offshore platform, close to an offshore ammonia production and storage facility.