The world’s first onboard carbon capture on voyage
After receiving MNOK 78 in Norwegian government climate fund support, Clipper Eris makes a first launch of full-scale onboard CCS, highlighting Solvang’s pathfinder mission in climate technology for deepsea shipping.
Post-combustion separation, capture, storage and offloading of CO2 appears as a very promising solution for deep sea shipping. Since 2021 Wärtsilä have run a full-scale CCS pilot on a 1.2 MW system in Wärtsilä´s facility in Moss, Norway. Results showed carbon capture rates steadily above 70 %, while producing extensive data to support applied testing.
Dramatic improvement
In 2023, Solvang received a grant of MNOK 78 from the Norwegian Climate and Energy Fund, in order to apply carbon capture and storage in deep sea operation. At the turn of the year, OCCS was being installed onboard the -class LPG carrier Clipper Eris.
The OCCS system serves a 7 MW main engine, where it captures CO2 before it passes through the exhaust outlets. Inside the smokestack, carbon gas is being separated, then refrigerated into liquefaction and transferred to deck storage. The installation is set to capture 70-80 % of carbon dioxide from the main engine and auxiliary engines’ outlet, dramatically improving the ship’s environmental performance.
Saving e-fuel
Also outfitted with exhaust gas recirculation and a hybrid exhaust cleaning gas system, Clipper Eris’ propulsion setup achieves compliance with IMO’s decarbonization trajectory towards 2050. The net-zero target consequently
requires only 20-30 % of very expensive e-fuel to be achieved.
On top of this, the carbon captured from OCCS can be utilized to process e-fuels for the market, in addition to other applications.
The ECO LPG programme
The OCCS installation is the culmination of efforts Solvang started in 2008, when IMO introduced its emission reduction plan towards 2050, and Solvang started planning the ECO LPG programme, which was initiated in 2011.
“The continuous efforts to reduce our climate footprint will continue unabated into the future”, CEO Edvin Endresen states.
Sustainable tech across the fleet
Solvan’s mission with the CCS pilot is to install sustainable technology across the fleet and contribute to reduce global shipping’s environmental footprint. This is according to IMOs GHG-reduction framework and other international initiatives.
The project goes alongside a series of substantial measures in the fields of optimizing machine operations, transmission technology, propeller and rudder improvements, hull optimization, as well as advanced open-loop scrubber technology.
