Two Samskip Vessels to be Fitted With Novel Carbon Capture Solution

The systems are due for commissioning in early 2023. Image Credit: Samskip

Rotterdam headquartered logistics company Samskip has announced it will fit two of its vessels with a novel carbon capture solution from Value Maritime.

The 'Filtree' gas cleaning solutions will be fitted to container ships Samskip Innovator and Samskip Endeavour.

Each installation will feature a gas cleaning unit behind the funnel, with recovered CO2 pumped to a 10MW CO2 battery set housed in ISO tank containers and carried on deck.

Charged during the voyage, these batteries are unloaded in port, with Value Maritime trucking them to CO2 consumers such as greenhouses for discharge, then returning them empty for the next voyage.

For ships running on conventional marine fuels, the Filtree system is said to capture 30% or more of CO2 emissions, as well as sulfur, and particulate matter.

"We haven't seen anything like Filtree carbon capture technology out there, but reusing the CO2 by delivering it to greenhouses – that's something really special," said Erik Hofmeester, Head of Vessel Management, Samskip.

"It's an elegant system which redelivers CO2 for natural absorption."

The systems are due for commissioning in early 2023.

"Samskip Innovator and Samskip Endeavour ... run between the UK and the Netherlands on bio-fuels, which already cut CO2 by 90%. Using the Filtree system in addition will allow us to offer our first carbon neutral shortsea services," Hofmeester added.

Until recently, CO2 capture technology has not been considered a serious contender to be part of marine shipping's decarbonization plans.

In 2018, Simon Bennett, Deputy Secretary General of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) told Ship & Bunker that "carbon capture is still a somewhat embryonic/unproven technology especially for use on board commercial ships, which is why our current assumption is that the IMO target for a total 50% cut of shipping emissions by 2050 - seen in the context of projections for increases in maritime trade - is most likely to be met with the development of zero CO2 fuels."

But since there there has been a considerable both in interest and development of the tech, and last month alone saw Shipping companies Crowley and Berge Bulk invest in a US firm developing onboard carbon capture and storage systems, HMM saying it would join a study looking into the prospects for carbon capture technology to play a role in the decarbonisation of shipping, and ABS publish a new report examining onboard carbon capture technology for the shipping industry.

Countering the enthusiasm for carbon capture playing a role in maritime decarbonization are critics who say its adoption will only cause an unnecessarily prolonging in the use of fossil fuels.