A game changer is within reach
Solvang´s full-scale testing of carbon capture and storage (CCS) could be a game changer in the struggle to decarbonize global freight and reach the 1.5 degrees climate goal.
The world´s pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050 requires substantial input of CCS, carbon capture and storage, according to the International Energy Agency IEA and Shell Global, maker of the latest roadmap to decarbonize the energy sector.
Currently there is no working technology for shipboard CCS, and deep-sea transportation has no access to the amount of e-fuel necessary to replace conventional fuel oil, HFO/LSFO. This is what shipowner Solvang ASA is about to change.
“We believe deep sea shipping can play an important role”, says Mr. Tor Øyvind Ask, fleet director at Solvang ASA.
The Norwegian shipowner has spent 20 years optimizing engine operation, emission cleaning and exhaust recirculation to benchmark conventional heavy fuel oil (HFO) with LPG, LNG, biofuels and others in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. After removing NOx, SOx, and other pollutants from the exhaust, the problem with CO2 remains, since there can be no combustion without carbon output.
“There are no easy solutions, so we are looking for the big game changer: To avoid CO2 emissions by means of capture and storage”, says CEO Edvin Endresen at Solvang.
Solvang fleet director Tor-Øyvind Ask
CEO Edvin Endresen
"There are no easy solutions, so we are looking for the big game changer: To avoid CO2 emissions by means of capture and storage"
- CEO Edvin Endresen
Project status: 60 % CCS
Last fall, Solvang launched a vessel scale CCS project in collaboration with exhaust gas cleaning producer Wärtsilä. The goal is to capture CO2 from main engine combustion before it passes through the exhaust outlets. A complex carbon separation process takes place inside the smokestack, resulting in liquid CO2 being transferred to deck tanks, ready for long-term storage or industrial reuse.
A complete setup of scrubber plus CCS installation already runs on a 1.2 MW full-scale test environment at Wärtsilä´s facility in Moss, Norway.
“The system already runs up to 60 percent carbon capture on some engine loads, which has never been done before. Furthermore, initial indications are that the CO2 captured is very pure, with little or no product contamination”, says Mr. Endresen at Solvang.
Soon, an upscaled solution will be installed on ethylene carrier Clipper Eos, where it will serve the 7 MW main engine. By mid -22, an electrostatic filter will be installed in Eos´ exhaust gas cleaning system, a first-time experiment in ship engine history.
If everything works well, a carbon absorber and stripper units will be installed towards the end of 2023, as well as modification of liquefaction systems to cater for deck tanks. The following two years, a complete CCS setup will operate alongside the existing scrubber and exhaust gas cleaning systems onboard Eos, providing a steady stream of live data.
“The scheduled combination of CCS, scrubber and Solvang´s low-pressure EGR system will handle CO2, NOx, SOx, particles, CO and unburnt fuel from the HFO combustion. If applied to deep sea shipping as a sector, it constitutes a great step towards net-zero emission,” states Mr. Tor-Øyvind Ask.
Solvang and Wärtsilä management inspect the 1.2 MW engine CCS test facility in Moss, which will be the basis for the Clipper Eos installation (7MW)
HFO: Life-cycle winner
Without carbon capture, there is only a 10-15 percent potential reduction in GHG emissions from fossil fuels like MGO, VLSO, LPG, LNG and HFO – as opposed to climate goals where the target is net zero. If highly potent greenhouse gases such as methane slip are included, low-carbon fuel LNG may score particularly low.
When shipboard CCS becomes available, HFO turns out to be the climate-winner among fossil fuels. This is when accounting for carbon in a life-cycle perspective from extraction of oil through mileage of the cargo, often called well-to-wake.
After CO2 extraction, HFO scores better than all other fossil fuels, but it also challenges electro fuel (e-fuel) due to processing costs like coal-fueled generation of electricity affecting its life-cycle CO2 budget. Even when e-fuel comes from zero emission sources, there is little hope to cover deep sea shipping with this energy source within the next decades.
“To expect all sectors to plunge emissions at the same time will not work. Air traffic will place the highest bid for e-fuel, leaving shipping to opt for other fuel types. CCS is something we can do within a few years. When the world has sufficiently green energy, the captured CO2 can be transformed into electro fuel. Summed up, we offer a bridge into decarbonized deep sea shipping, thereby contributing seriously to our common future”, Mr. Ask says.
