Project set to instal and test carbon capture and storage on oil tanker

A project to instal a carbon capture and storage system onboard an oil tanker has been given approval in principle from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), the US ship certification agency.

Stena Bulk’s Stena Impero
Stena Bulk’s Stena Impero - Stena Rederi

The project’s seven-member consortium includes Deltamarin, the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonization (GCMD) in Singapore, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), ABS, Stena Bulk, Alfa Laval and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).

Approval in principle allows the consortium to consider whether the project will move to the next stage, which includes engineering, procurement, and construction.

The global shipping industry is looking at solutions, including low-carbon fuels and onboard carbon capture, to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from a 2008 baseline.

The consortium’s members believe the onboard carbon capture system could help accelerate commercial deployment of shipboard carbon capture technology within the next five years.

Following a full engineering study, the carbon capture system will be built and tested prior to integration onboard a Stena Bulk medium range (MR) tanker for sea trials. A rigorous stage gate review process will be conducted prior to progression between phases.

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The consortium began the first phase of Project REMARCCABLE (Realising Maritime Carbon Capture to demonstrate the Ability to Lower Emissions) in 2022, which involved conceptual design and a front-end engineering design study of the carbon capture system.

The second phase will include engineering, procurement, and construction of a prototype shipboard carbon capture system and onshore commissioning. Phase three will focus on integrating the carbon capture system with the MR tanker and conducting sea trials.

The GCMD plans to launch a study on offloading the liquid carbon dioxide to resolve potential challenges and inform the third phase of the project.

In a statement, Mia Elg, R&D manager at Deltamarin, said: “The approval in principle is an important milestone that we can celebrate with the team. We are very pleased with the great collaboration we have had during the project so far, which is essential both for ensuring good performance of the system onboard and for the entire design and retrofit process.”