Two shipping companies have taken stakes in a Norwegian company focusing on membrane CO2 capture and separation technology.
Aqualung Carbon Capture said it has completed new equity investment from “key strategic partners” naming container ship owner Global Ship Lease and Golar LNG, which is pivoting to focus on floating LNG production, alongside chemical company Standard Lithium and precious metals refiner and trader MKS Pamp.
It added that representatives from Golar and Standard Lithium will also join the Aqualung board of directors.
Aqualung, which was founded by Erik Mathiesen, Henrik Utvik and Andrew Robbins, said its carbon capture process facilitates a natural reaction between exhaust gas components which prevents CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
“Our mission is to provide the lowest-cost, most environmentally friendly carbon capture solution on the market,” the company said, by unlocking material amounts of CO2 that would otherwise be uneconomic to capture and accelerate the decarbonisation of heavy industry and transport.
Speaking about its technology, Aqualung said: “The cost, weight, low complexity, and small footprint advantage has also garnered strong interest from the LNG/maritime sector as confirmed by our strategic investors.”
Aqualung said it will use the new funds to grow its team across Europe and the US.
It also plans to deliver a first commercial pilot with Standard Lithium and start commercialisation projects with industrial suppliers.
Aqualung said this is in line with its objective of providing large scale commercial units before 2025.
The company said its technology has achieved proof of concept at two cement installations. It is now moving on to industrialise its coating process and deliver a containerised commercial unit.
Aqualung said it will initiate this scale up in collaboration with Standard Lithium at a CO2 capture Pilot Plant to demonstrate its technology on low CO2 concentration levels.
“This Pilot will unlock a significant number of hard-to-abate emitters and also set us up to optimise our solution for higher CO2 concentration markets including cement, steel, waste management, refining & petrochemicals sectors,” the company said.
Aqualung president and chief technical officer Henrik Utvik said equity raise establishes the key technology partnerships and the resources to take the company’s concept to the next level.
Utvik said: “Golar and Aqualung share a strong foundation of technical expertise and support from NTNU [Norwegian University of Science and Technology], and together are ready to play a decisive role in decarbonising the LNG supply chain.”
Aqualung chief executive Andrew Robbins said: “Aqualung will lean on the entrepreneurial, engineering and scale up experience of our investor group to commercialise and roll out this technology at a pace no one thought was possible.”
