Japan's K Line Plans Carbon Capture Plant on Vessel

Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) on August 31 announced it would deploy a small-scale, marine-use demonstration plant for CO₂ capture onboard a vessel, in collaboration with two project partners. It will also conduct research and development on compact facility design.

The project is supported by the maritime bureau of the ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism (MLIT) under a programme to support research and development for advancing marine resources technologies, K Line said.

“With the support of MLIT, K Line will collaborate with Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) to install a small-scale CO₂ capture demonstration plant onboard its vessel, conduct test operations of the plant, and measure its performance,” K Line said.

The marine-use CO₂ capture demonstration plant will be based on the design of an onshore plant and built to capture a portion of a vessel’s gas emissions. This project will not only verify the efficacy of capturing and storing CO₂ from a vessel’s gas emissions, but also the operability and safety of CO₂ capture facilities at sea, the company said.

“These demonstration tests are aimed at promoting the development of more compact equipment required by marine environments along with the development of system requirements necessary for stable continuous operation at sea,” it said.

The two-year project began in August with the launch of a Hazid (hazard identification) evaluation of the demonstration plant and its deployment on vessels, with verification from ClassNK. Mitsubishi Shipbuilding will build a small-scale CO₂ capture demonstration plant and evaluate system safety.

In the middle of 2021, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding will start testing the demonstration plant at its factory, and after will deploy the facility on K Line’s Corona Utility, a thermal coal carrier operated for Tohoku Electric Power. By the end of fiscal 2021, the project partners will start operating the plant onboard and measure the system's performance under marine conditions, with the aim of jointly developing a new marine system for vessels.

Additionally, the captured CO₂ is expected to be recycled as a new CO₂ source for enhanced oil recovery processes or as raw material in synthetic fuel through methanation. “In this way, the project will significantly contribute to the long-term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” K Line said.