Ship-based Carbon Capture Study Seeks to Commercialize System by 2025
The European Union is providing funding for a new research effort designed to advance ship-based carbon capture for the maritime sector. The project, which is being led by Hague-based research institute TNO, will seek to demonstrate the commercial applications and cost competitiveness of ship-based carbon capture by testing the system on two LNG-fueled ships as part of the effort to bring the technology to market by 2025.
“Funding from the EU will enable us to conduct studies aimed at making commercial ship-based carbon capture a reality,” said Marco Linders of TNO and project coordinator for the EverLoNG initiative. “Our demonstration campaigns will optimize shopboard carbon capture technology and we will also consider how best to integrate it into existing ship and port infrastructure. We’ll also carry out detailed life cycle assessments and techno-economic analysis, which will be essential information for maritime sector companies.”
The project which involves 16 partners from Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the US, will conduct studies to support the development of full-chain carbon capture, utilization and storage networks, seeking to connect ship-based carbon capture with CO2 transport links, CO2 storage, and markets for CO2 use. According to the organizers, the studies will identify and help solve any technical barriers to the implementation of ship-based carbon capture as well as lower the costs associated with the technology.
They believe it will be possible to achieve the targets of advancing ship-based carbon capture as a cost-competitive decarbonization option available to the market by 2025. They believe it will be possible to employ the technology with a marginal abatement cost of between approximately $80 and $100 per tonne of CO2 equivalent while achieving a CO2 capture rate of up to 90 percent.
Due to run through September 2024, the project will demonstrate its ship-based carbon capture systems on board two LNG-fueled ships. The vessels participating will be owned and operated by project partners TotalEnergies and Heerema Marine Contractors. Hemma said they plan to test the technology aboard the vessel Sleipnir, which was built in 2019 and by operating on LNG is already considered the world's most sustainable semi-submersible crane vessel. Both companies believe that ship-based carbon capture is a promising short-term solution that could be installed on their current fleet of ships to meet decarbonization goals.
Lloyd’s Register, Bureau Veritas and DNV will also participate in the project providing the evaluation of how ship-based carbon capture fits within existing regulatory frameworks for shipping.
EverLoNG was selected in 2021 by the EU’s Accelerating CCS Technologies (ACT) program. Following a rigorous two-stage evaluation process, EverLoNG received nearly $4 million in funding. It was selected along with 12 other R&D projects to address key research and innovation targets in the CCUS field.