Blaze Energy announced a $6.5 million seed round on Tuesday to advance a compact fuel "reformer" designed to make existing ship engines effectively fuel-agnostic. The device uses a heated catalyst to split alternative fuels such as ammonia, methanol, or liquified natural gas into a hydrogen-rich gas, which is then combined with the original fuel and conventional shipping fuel to power existing engines. The startup aims to make the bolt-on retrofit less than a tenth the size of the engine itself.
The shipping industry faces tightening carbon-emission requirements from the European Union and other jurisdictions, pushing shipowners away from traditional bunker fuel or diesel. But it remains unclear which cleaner fuel will prove most economical and efficient at scale. Blaze's CEO and co-founder Rok Sitar said the retrofit lets shipping companies "adjust their assets based on how the global energy landscape, regulation, as well as their company direction is changing." Strategic partners include vessel owner and operator Lomar Shipping, which expects to pilot the system at sea beginning sometime next year, and ship management consultancy Link Marine, which plans to offer it to tanker operators.
Blaze has conducted small-scale demonstrations showing its proprietary catalyst can reform ammonia, methanol, and LNG. Its first product focuses solely on ammonia reformation: a portion of liquid ammonia flows over an electrically-heated catalyst, breaking it into hydrogen and nitrogen. The hydrogen helps the remaining ammonia burn more efficiently alongside conventional shipping fuel, while the nitrogen exits through the exhaust. Sitar said a certain composition of ammonia and hydrogen "burns just like diesel," allowing Blaze to essentially trick the engine into operating as if it were burning standard fuel. If the reformer fails, the ship can revert to conventional fuel alone, a fail-safe feature Sitar said lowers risk for shipowners.
Blaze is targeting commercial rollout in 2028. What remains unknown is whether the system can perform reliably at sea beyond small-scale demonstrations, how much the retrofit will cost shipowners, and whether ammonia, methanol, or LNG will emerge as the dominant low-carbon marine fuel. The company's evidence base is limited to a single source, and no independent performance data or customer commitments beyond the announced pilot were disclosed.