Alfa Laval and Japan’s National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI) have succeeded in onboard CO2 capture testing using an exhaust gas cleaning system.

As the marine industry strives for a decarbonized future, Alfa Laval and partners are investigating the technologies needed to achieve it. One of the opportunities is carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Initiated by NMRI, the CO2 capture testing project was designed to provide real-world validation of results achieved in the lab. Since it required a proven, full-scale hybrid scrubber system, Alfa Laval PureSOx played an important role. The Japanese shipowner associated with the research, who had installed PureSOx for SOx compliance on a newbuild, arranged with Alfa Laval and the shipyard to include the testing in the vessel’s sea trials.

CCS is a potential bridge technology, offering the possibility to extract carbon from emissions until carbon-neutral fuels become more viable. In a full CCS solution, carbon removed from a vessel’s exhaust gas would be stored to prevent it from entering the atmosphere. For this project, the scope was limited to showing that a scrubber could perform the CO2 capture on board. The modified PureSOx system was able to absorb CO2 from the auxiliary diesel engines in port, while operating in closed loop.

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