The Kuok Group is teaming up with a top Singapore university to develop post-combustion carbon capture and storage technologies for shipboard applications.

The project, which has been awarded by the Singapore Maritime Institute (SMI), will see it work alongside Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore's Maritime Energy & Sustainable Development (MESD) and the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (SCBE).

Funding for the research will come from the National Research Foundation Singapore under the Maritime Transformation Programme.

The project will include a feasibility study of CCS, technology development, and testing with actual exhaust gas to determine the performance of CCS and identify challenges for scaling up the technology.

CCS has been identified as a potential abatement technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transitional period to a low-carbon economy.

Although conventional technology for CCS has been used in power plants worldwide, there are commercial and technical challenges to its use in the shipping industry.

Kuok Singapore Ltd (KSL) Maritime Group said the private-public partnership is an initiative of the group's maritime decarbonisation effort.

“SMI is pleased to support this research project on shipboard carbon capture technology. It can potentially be the first of its kind in the world, if successful,” said SMI executive director Cheng Peng Tan.

“We are also delighted that KSL Maritime Group is onboard as an industry partner and would like to thank them for collaborating with NTU in providing both cash and in-kind contribution for the project.”

The 30-month long project will be led by Professor Wang Xin, chair of SCBE at NTU.

Professor Dr Jasmine Lam, centre director of the MESD centre of excellence at NTU commented: “Carbon capture and storage has been identified as a potential abatement technology to reduce GHG emissions in the transitional period to a low-carbon economy.

“Such collaboration with key industry players like KSL is highly valuable, as we jointly develop a meaningful and innovative solution.”

The SMI is a joint effort by the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA), the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).
Established in April 2011, SMI develops strategies and programs to achieve its mission with key focus areas in sectors such as port, shipping and maritime services.

It charts the maritime research strategy and promotes greater industry-academia R&D collaborations to be undertaken in Singapore.

The KSL Maritime Group comprises PaxOcean Holdings (PaxOcean), Pacific Carriers Limited (PCL) and PACC Offshore Services Holdings (POSH).