A PROJECT assessing the technical feasibility of onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS) has concluded the technology has the potential to help maritime transport significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
The collaborative project was carried out by the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD,) and Stena Bulk, together with a consortium of global maritime organisations.
Realising Maritime Carbon Capture to Demonstrate the Ability to Lower Emissions aimed to assess the viability of deploying carbon capture systems on vessels with minimal impact on operational constraints.
Tanker Stena Impero was used in the project to help analyse the design and cost implications of retrofitting a carbon capture system onboard.
The project found that the technology could reduce the vessel’s carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 20% per year, with a fuel consumption penalty of just under 10%.
According to GCMD, the costs of building and installation of the full system on Stena Impero were estimated at US$13.6 million, with an abatement cost of avoided CO2 for the prototype evaluated at US$769 per ton of CO2.
However, the consortium believes that further research and development will drive down costs, making OCCS increasingly viable for the shipping industry.
Michael Traver, head of OGCI’s transport workstream said the study is a major milestone in understanding the potential of using carbon capture technology to decarbonie the shipping industry.
“The technical feasibility demonstrated in the project is highly encouraging,” Dr Traver said.
“OGCI is committed to collaborating with the maritime sector to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon solutions and drive the industry towards a sustainable future.”
CEO of GCMD, professor Lynn Loo said the adoption of OCCS faces numerous hurdles, including the need to balance between maximising CO2 capture rates, while maintaining commercially acceptable CapEx and OpEx.
“This study provides quantitative insights on managing the trade-offs between the actual cost of operating OCCS and its emissions reductions potential,” Loo said.
“For OCCS systems to be practical, the industry needs to manage captured CO2 effectively. To this end, GCMD has previously completed a study to define the operational envelope for offloading onboard captured CO2, contributing to the whole-of-system approach to emissions reduction via carbon capture.”
Erik Hånell, president and CEO of Stena Bulk said, “This may be expensive for first movers, but the consortium believes that further research and development will drive down costs, making OCCS an increasingly viable solution for the shipping industry”.
The study also looked at incorporating OCCS on newbuild vessels, with the findings suggesting that improvements to capture rate and fuel penalty may be achieved using more efficient engines, heat pumps, and alternative solvents.
The GCMD said offloading captured CO2 is in its nascency, with a lack of national and port policies for accounting captured CO2 and its final deposition.
The current lack of infrastructure at ports to support offloading and storage also means collaboration and support from stakeholders across the value chain will be needed to develop offloading infrastructure and onshore storage, GCMD says.
