Norway's Klaveness Combination Carriers (KCC) is throwing its weight behind a new project aimed at capturing and storing carbon emissions from ships.
The Oslo-listed owner of vessels that carry both wet and dry cargoes said it is teaming up with Sintef Energy Research to examine "solvent-based absorption technology".
The CCShip project aims to build on class society's DNV assessment that this technique is feasible and could cut vessel emissions by more than 50%.
"A recent study indicates on-board carbon capture and storage (CCS) can have higher economic feasibility than zero-carbon fuels," KCC said.
Other avenues to be explored
The project will also seek to develop other cost-effective solutions, as solvent-based methods could be expensive, the shipowner believes.
This means looking at questions of weight, compactness, integration and efficiency.
"To maximise opportunities for CO2 capture implementation, the project will also investigate opportunities for different ship types and transport applications (size, fuel type, voyage distance), as well as consider both newbuild and retrofitting of vessels," KCC added.
Finnish marine solutions group Wartsila is already looking at capturing carbon through the use of scrubbers, as well as developing a liquid CO2 tanker.
Wartsila is also involved in CCShip, along with the University of Oslo and Seoul National University.
Every little bit helps
"To reach our decarbonisation targets of carbon neutral operation within 2030, we need to evaluate all solutions contributing towards significant further reductions of CO2 emissions in our transport work," said KCC chief executive Engebret Dahm.
The company argues that quicker solutions are needed, due to the long lead times before zero-carbon fuels are available worldwide.
"The one thing we know for certain is that we need all the solutions we can think of, both for increasing energy efficiency, burning fuels with lower carbon emissions, and for capturing and storing emitted CO2, and we need them now," Dahm added.
The executive said KCC will contribute its operational experience to the research project and continuously evaluate whether carbon capture may be a viable solution to cutting carbon output.
