Dutch technology group Value Maritime claims it has won the race to fit the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment on an operational ship.

The company will carry out a retrofit next month on the 1,036-teu feeder containership Nordica (built 2011), managed by compatriot Visser Shipping.

The boxship is owned by Nordic Hamburg and is to be operated by X-Press Feeders of Singapore.

Value Maritime said a capture module extracts the CO2 from the vessel's exhaust and uses the gas to charge a CO2 battery, essentially a storage facility.

The module will be integrated in Value Maritime's Filtree system, a small prefabricated, pre-installed, "plug and play" gas cleaning system.

The charged battery will be offloaded in ports and transported to CO2 customers, such as the agricultural sector, for re-use.

The battery will then return to the vessel, to be recharged.

The company calls this a "100% circular solution".

The port of Rotterdam will receive the first charged battery. Greenhouses in the city will use the captured gas to grow crops.

"Value Maritime is the first company worldwide to install a capture and storage facility on board of a vessel in operation," the Dutch group said.

French class society Bureau Veritas has approved the system.

Value Maritime expects to expand to additional locations shortly, including Bremerhaven and Hamburg, but will look at setting up infrastructure at any terminal requested by clients.

All carbon captured?

The company claims to be able to capture 100% of CO2 emissions.

"Installing the module will not only be beneficial for our clients, but will bring the maritime industry one step closer to targets set by IMO 2030 and 2050," Value Maritime co-founder and technical director Christiaan Nijst said.

Value Maritime has already equipped 12 vessels with a Filtree unit, with five more retrofits ordered.

"We are satisfied with the Filtree systems already installed on our vessels. With the additional CO2 capture solution, we can further improve our vessel’s sustainable footprint from day one, while preparing us for future environmental regulations," said Visser Shipping owner Douwe Visser.

In August, Japanese owner K Line installed what it said was the first carbon capture plant on a ship.

The small system was fitted on the 89,000-dwt coal carrier Corona Utility (built 2016) as part of the CC-Ocean demonstration project.

K Line has been working with Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, whose Yokohama yard carried out the retrofit, and class society ClassNK on the project.

But this did not include a storage solution.