Value Maritime’s carbon capture and storage system gets nod from LR

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has granted Approval in Principle for Value Maritime’s Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) System.

According to the Dutch maritime technology company, Filtree System, is a prefabricated gas cleaning system that filters sulphur and 99% of particulate matter.

The CCS system includes a carbon capture module that captures the CO2 in a special chemical. This chemical will be stored in a large tank onboard which will be converted for this purpose. When full, the chemical will be pumped out in port and the CO2 will be released for re-use by CO2 customers or for injection into carbon sequestration networks.

According to Value Maritime, its CCS technology allows vessels to capture up to 40% of CO2 emissions, with the potential of exceeding 90% in the future.

The system is scheduled to be fitted on two Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) MR tankers, Pacific Cobal and Pacific Gold, in order to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

“With installation on the Pacific Cobalt and Pacific Gold making them the largest ocean-going vessels to be fitted with CCS technology, EPS are taking tangible steps to reduce CO2 emissions in the shipping industry,” Mark Darley, Chief Operating Officer, Lloyd’s Register, said.

Singapore-based EPS has an option to equip three more vessels with Value Maritime’s technology.

Installation onboard M/T Pacific Cobalt is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, while the installation onboard M/T Pacific Gold is scheduled to be completed by the end of Q1 2023.

In addition to the retrofits, EPS and VM are exploring future collaboration opportunities, such as deploying the Filtree system onboard EPS newbuilds, including a new generation of containerships.

“Sustainable shipping is here today and it’s available for forward-thinking shipowners just like EPS. Thanks to LR’s Approval in Principle for our carbon capture and storage system we can bring our filtering and carbon capture technology to the tanker market and beyond,” Maarten Lodewijks, Co-Founder & Director, Value Maritime, said.

Mirtcho Spassov, Manager, Green Shipping, Eastern Pacific Shipping, believes that carbon capture has the potential to play an important role in reducing the industry’s carbon emissions, complementing the industry’s efforts to adopt alternative fuels and to increase the efficiency of our fleet.

“We are excited to be deploying this technology on our vessels working in close cooperation with Lloyd’s Register and Value Maritime,” he added.

Value Maritime’s first CO₂ capture module and CO₂ battery was installed on Visser Shipping’s Nordica vessel in October last year, making the Nordica the first vessel to capture and store CO₂ onboard a vessel whilst in operation. The vessel will be operated by X-Press Feeders, a container shipping group operating out of Singapore.

Carbon capture onboard ships is getting greater attention amid continuing uncertainty surrounding the availability of carbon-neutral fuels. The technology seems to be rather attractive as it can deliver emission reductions relatively quickly and is not dependent upon the availability and pricing of fuels.

There are many methods for the onboard removal of carbon and they can be divided into two categories — pre-combustion carbon capture and post-combustion carbon capture. The first category involves cleaning exhaust gases before release — e.g. scrubbers and the second category includes chemical absorption, membrane separation and cryogenic carbon capture technologies that can be retrofitted on existing ships or fully integrated into new vessels.