Sweden's Stena Bulk has launched a project to examine the potential for carbon capture from ships at sea.
The product tanker specialist is working with the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), a climate change mitigation group led by oil majors.
A joint study will evaluate the technical and economic challenges involved when capturing CO2 on moving vessels.
The project is partly an extension of OGCI member Saudi Aramco’s work that successfully demonstrated carbon capture on big trucks.
The scheme aims to provide necessary research on a solution that might help shipping reach its 2050 target to cut emissions by 50% relative to the 2008 baseline levels.
Funded by OGCI, the project brings together their member companies' expertise in carbon-capture technologies, CO2 handling, and relevant infrastructure with Stena Bulk's shipping, trading, and naval engineering knowledge and experience.
Cost-efficient solution
Stena Bulk chief executive Erik Hanell told TradeWinds: "The project is to help us take the first few steps to identify a cost-efficient solution that can capture a significant amount of CO2 and could work on board some of our deepsea vessels."
He said the company is evaluating both different potential ships and alternative technologies and engineering solutions for the capture and storage of CO2.
"We and OGCI believe there is great potential to reduce a significant part of the CO2 emissions, but the next move will depend on our results here as well as concurrent work being done by OGCI members to evaluate the infrastructure needed to manage and sequester the captured CO2," Hanell said.
Trials could take place
Sea trials could take place depending on the technical outcomes and economics of the proposed solutions, Hanell added.
"We are always looking for innovative and new ways to practically reduce our carbon footprint, especially when it means we can collaborate with our key customers like those who are members of OGCI," Hanell said.
"It’s great to see we are collectively driven to provide research and insights on how or if carbon capture could be part of the set of solutions that we need to reach our common climate goals."
Hanell added that the company hopes to see some insights and results coming together over the coming months, and to have some reliable answers to the key questions about on-board carbon capture in the first quarter of 2021.
Important role to play
Michael Traver, head of the transport work stream at OGCI, said: "Carbon capture will play an important role in reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, but there's no reason it needs to be limited to stationary applications.
"Expanding carbon capture to long distance marine shipping could help accelerate its use, while addressing a difficult to abate sector of the transport industry."
Other members of the oil company group include BP, Shell, Chevron, Total, Petrobras, Equinor, Eni, CNPC and ExxonMobil.
Carbon capture involves trapping CO2 at its emission source and transporting it to a storage location, usually deep underground.
Stena Bulk's decarbonisation efforts already involve a move into methanol shipping and biofuels.
