Solvang will carry out a full-scale pilot with carbon capture on board the gas tanker Clipper Eris. Enova supports the project.
– We are pleased that the Norwegian state, through Enova, has approved the sponsorship of Solvang’s CCS project, which makes it possible to transfer the project from testing carbon capture on land to full-scale installation on board the ethylene ship Clipper Eris, says the CEO Edvin Endresen in Solvang ASA.
Edvin Endresen
CEO, Solvang ASA
The CCS project (Carbon Capture and Storage) is a collaboration between the scrubber manufacturer Wärtsilä, the research institute Sintef and the tanker shipping company Solvang. The state-owned enterprise Enova supports the project with approximately NOK 80 million.
The technology is feasible, but the value chain is a challenge
At Wärtsilä’s plant in Moss, the use of amine cleaning technology has been tested for a couple of years to capture 70 percent of the CO2 in the exhaust gas from the main engine in ships, including liquefaction and storage on board ships. The testing has yielded positive results. Solvang will now install the technology on board the gas tanker Clipper Eris, which is a Deep Sea ship, that is, a ship that sails across the world’s oceans.
– The technology will be piloted on board the Deep Sea vessel Clipper Eris over two years, while it is in normal commercial operation. If the pilot project is successful, we intend to install the technology on five other ships that have been ordered for delivery in 2026-2027, he says.
Installation and conversion will take place in Singapore in the summer of 2024.
– I’m not really worried about the technical side, because we know it works. A bigger challenge is the value chain or the practical implementation of it. We will clean the CO2 on the ship, store it on the ship, but then we have to unload it in various ports. It will be a challenge where we will do it, and we will have to work on that going forward. In this context, it is interesting that there is a lack of carbon within the petrochemical industry in the world today. So the ideal scenario would be for us to deliver carbon to a player in the petrochemical industry, who would use the carbon to make new fuel using renewable energy. That way, carbon can be captured and used again and again, he says.
One of several solutions to reach the zero emission targets
CO2 capture is not a new technology, but the new thing is that it will now take place on board ships that go on long, overseas voyages.
– If we are to achieve the goal of zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, there must be more solutions to the climate problem than just new green solutions. We believe that carbon capture on board Deep Sea vessels is a contribution to achieving the environmental goal. There are no simple solutions to the environmental challenges, but we believe that carbon capture is an important contributor along with several other solutions, says Endresen.
Solvang ASA
Written by Marius Jenssen