100% Onboard Carbon Capture May Be Possible by 2026: Value Maritime

The deal will involved Value Maritime and Carbon Collectors first working on a conceptual design study. File Image / Pixabay

Technology firm Value Maritime is set to work on carbon capture system designs for a new fleet of tugs with a view to making them carbon-neutral from delivery as soon as 2026.

The firm is working with CO2 company Carbon Collectors on a conceptual design study for a new fleet of MGO-fuelled tugs, it said in an emailed statement on Monday.

The two companies will seek to determine the required installed power of the diesel generators, the estimated CAPEX and OPEX, the best discharge options for the captured CO2 and the optimal solution for unloading and underground storage.

"This is a first for us," Christiaan Nijst, director of Value Maritime, said in the statement.

"We've conducted many studies in relation to larger sea-going vessels but now Carbon Collectors are affording us the opportunity to apply our carbon capture expertise to tugs, extending the reach of our sustainable shipping solutions."

Construction of the first of the tugs is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2024.

"Once operational by 2026, their MGO fuelled tugs could be effectively capturing all of their CO2  emissions onboard," the companies said in the statement.

"For years to come, carbon-neutral fuels will not be available in amounts that are large enough to fulfil demands, so carbon capture and storage seems the only feasible option in the short and medium term," Haije Stigter, technical director of Carbon Collectors, said in the statement.

Maritime technology companies are increasingly looking at carbon capture as a means of cutting the shipping industry's emissions, particularly in combination with scrubbers. But it remains to be seen what percentage of a vessel's carbon emissions can be reliably captured and removed for storage, and at what cost.

Direct air carbon capture remains another route for maritime to leverage the technology.