The photo is sourced from fathom.world
The research will take place on the dry cargo ships operated by Wah Kwong. The project technical basis will be the Qiyao Environ Tec development, a CO2 capture unit, able to absorb up to 85% of the emitted carbon dioxide. Bureau Veritas, in its turn, will monitor safety of the applied solutions and their compliance with the international standards. In the future, the parties plan to test the carbon dioxide capture units on oil tankers.
The CO2 capture will include several stages: firstly, carbon dioxide will be fed to an absorption unit, with an amine-based solution that will suck up the carbon dioxide. Then, the liquid saturated with CO2 will enter a gas separation column where the carbon dioxide will be desorbed under high-temperature impact. Finally, at the last stage, the extracted carbon dioxide will be compressed, purified and cooled to a liquid state, in which it can be stored in a low-temperature tank.
“The transition to a greener shipping industry is critical. Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology captured a total of 40 million tonnes of CO2 in 2021 according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), notably in industrial projects on shore. This makes CCUS one of the options available today that could significantly contribute to achieve carbon neutrality, as well as a promising avenue for reducing emissions from shipping,” Wah Kwong quotes in its release Alex Gregg-Smith, senior Vice President of Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore.
France’s Bureau Veritas has earlier participated in the certification of the emission capture system for small and medium-sized vessels that was created by Value Maritime, a Dutch company. The development consists of a compact scrubber housing for absorption and processing of greenhouse gases, as well as a portable CO2 injection and a transfer tank, and a ballast water treatment unit. The innovation was piloted last year at the Netherlands, on the ships with an engine capacity of 3-15 megawatts.
Shipping is the third largest CO2 emitter in the transport sector. As McKinsey estimates, it accounts for 11% of transport’s carbon dioxide emissions, while the land and air transportation account for 75% and 13%, respectively (with all the other transportation modes accounting for 1%).
