HD Hyundai Mipo starts building Korea’s first LCO2 carrier

South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Mipo has held a steel cutting ceremony for a 22,000 cbm liquefied carbon dioxide (LCO2) carrier at its Ulsan headquarters, becoming the first company in the domestic shipbuilding industry to build such a ship.

According to HD Hyundai Mipo, this is the first of four LCO2 carriers of the same class ordered from Greece’s Capital Maritime Group between July 2023 and January 2024 and is the largest carbon dioxide carrier ordered in the world to date.

The ship, with specifications of 159.9 meters in length, 27.4 meters in width and 17.8 meters in height, applies ice-resistant design technology (Ice Class 1C) that allows safe navigation on cold, icy seas.

It is equipped with three ‘Bi-lobe type carbon dioxide storage tanks’ that can maintain a low temperature and high-pressure environment of -55 degrees Celsius (℃) and five times the atmospheric pressure, so it can transport various liquefied gas cargoes such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and ammonia in addition to liquefied carbon dioxide.

HD Hyundai Mipo said it plans to install a 2,500 kW land-based power supply unit and a nitrogen oxide reduction device on this vessel to reduce emissions of air pollutants such as fine dust and sulfur oxides. The design is also ammonia-ready.

The shipbuilder is advancing the pressure control technology of liquefied carbon dioxide through the Ship Carbon Neutrality R&D Demonstration Facility, completed in April 2024, together with HD Hyundai Shipbuilding affiliates such as HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.

An undisclosed HD Hyundai Mipo official stated: “We are further accelerating the development of new ship technologies and the expansion of production facilities in preparation for increasingly strengthened decarbonization regulations.”

To note, the deliveries of four LCO2 carriers are planned from November 2025 to the second half of 2026.

In late 2023, the classification society Lloyd’s Register (LR) joined hands with Capital Gas Ship Management and Hyundai Mipo on the construction of two ammonia-ready 22,000 cbm LCO2 carriers.