EverLoNG ship-based carbon capture project is nearing an important milestone with the prototype ship-based carbon capture (SBCC) equipment almost ready to be installed on an LNG-powered LNG carrier.
According to the project’s update, the SBCC equipment, being built in the Netherlands by Carbotreat, will be installed in July on an LNG carrier arranged by French energy major TotalEnergies, one of the partners in the EverLoNG project, and operate for three to five months on board.
The project is led by TNO and also includes Heerema Marine Contractors as a partner. Marco Linders of TNO said that this will be the first testing campaign for the carbon capture equipment, running for 2,500 to 3,000 hours. According to Linders, the unit is able to treat 100-150 Nm3/h of exhaust gas, implying it can capture up to 250 kg of CO2 per day.
The captured CO2 will be stored onboard as a liquid in a pressurised vessel and off-loaded and transported to an industrial site or stored permanently in the subsurface.
After the trial on TotalEnergies’ LNG carrier, the SBCC equipment will be removed and installed on a second vessel – the LNG-powered crane vessel owned by Heerema Marine Contractors.
These demonstration campaigns are expected to contribute to the objective of the EverLoNG project – acceleration of the implementation of SBCC technology. They aim to bring SBCC from Technology Readiness Level 4 (TRL4) to TRL7.
The project’s goal is to reduce CO2 emissions of ships by at least 70%, taking the same ship running on LNG but not equipped with SBCC as the reference case. The project is also working on the cost-effectiveness of SBCC, aiming to achieve CO2 capture and on-board storage costs below 100 €/ton (1st of a kind, to be achieved by 2025) and 50 €/ton (nth of a kind).
The costs of off-loading, transport and storage (or utilisation) of CO2 in several CCUS chains are also being evaluated in parallel with the impact of SBCC on the ships’ infrastructure, stability and safety, to guarantee the technical feasibility of the proposed technology.
Finally, the project developers said they are developing off-loading strategies that clarify the post-treatment required on-board, as well as the infrastructure necessary on the port side. To this end, EverLoNG has established a CO2 Shipping Interoperability Industry Group (CSIIG) and is proposing a Roadmap towards a European off-loading network.