FUTURE FUELS
STANDALONE CCS SYSTEM FOR DUAL-FUEL VESSELS BG Freight Line is installing Value Maritime's Filtree exhaust gas cleaning and carbon capture system onboard two of its containerships chartered from shipowner HS Schiffahrt BG Onyx and BG Ruby are expected to be retrofitted this summer with Value Maritime’s exhaust gas cleaning system which includes a carbon capture module. Once the installation is complete, the vessels will continue to trade in North-West Europe and will use Value Maritime outlets across the region to return the CO2 to shore so it can be reused on land. The integrated CO2 module can capture 90% of the CO2 in the vessels’ exhaust, but the percentage of CO2 the owner/ charterer wishes to capture is their choice. The captured CO2 is chemically bound to a carrier material and is stored at ambient pressure and temperature in patented CO2 batteries the size of 20-foot shipping containers. Once the vessel is docked, the full CO2 batteries are replaced with empty ones for the next voyage. “The battery can be offloaded and re-used to facilitate the growth of flowers and other crops or used to enrich future fuels such as methanol for dual-fuelled vessels. Especially in combination with the production of methanol, we see that our Filtree contributes to the circular use of CO2 and therefore reduces emissions drastically,” says Christiaan Nijst, Director & Co-Founder at Netherlands-based Value Maritime. The company’s first installation was on Visser Shipping’s Nordica containership in October 2021, making it the first vessel to capture and store CO2 onboard whilst in operation. Bureau Veritas granted the relevant approvals for the system. The Nordica has two CO2 batteries onboard which store enough CO2 to reduce the ship’s carbon emissions by 70%. The vessel is operated by X-Press Feeders and is performing optimally, says Nijst. The Filtree system is one-third the size of a conventional scrubber, and Nijst says shipowners can earn back their investment in 1-2.5 years by running on heavy fuel oil (HFO) rather than VLSFO and by offering customers the option of reducing CO2 emissions in their supply chains and setting a premium on that service. Charging companies upstream to reduce shipping-related emissions could be more effective than purchasing carbon offsets which vary in reliability and effectiveness, he says. “Our unique technology offers the best of both worlds – vessel owners/charterers can save money and reduce CO2 at a competitive price per tonne of CO2 as much as they or their customers choose. A valuable green and financial dividend, it increases the competitiveness of a vessel by reducing its environmental footprint and lowering OPEX.” Koert Luitwieler, CEO of BG Freight Line, appreciates the ease of installation of the system: “Value Maritime’s technology offers us an immediate and sustainable solution to reducing our carbon emissions while keeping our vessels commercially competitive and sailing with virtually no disruption to our trading.” The Filtree system is suitable for all ship types, for
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newbuilding or retrofit, and is suitable for engine sizes between 2.0 and 15.0 MW, including engines running on LNG or methanol. It includes a compact, plug-and-play exhaust gas cleaning system that filters sulphur as well as ultra-fine particulate matter. The wash water is filtered and pH neutralised before discharge. “Our Filtree system includes the integrated carbon capture feature, it’s a combined system,” says Nijst. “However, the sulphur scrubber can be used without the CO2 capture unit. As conventional scrubbers do not clean the exhaust gasses to the extent of the Filtree, it is not possible to combine our CO2 capture unit with a conventional scrubber.” The system can be moved from one vessel to another so that shipowners can invest in emissions-reduction technology without committing to a specific fuel or vessel type. The captured CO2 could eventually be used to produce e-methanol to form a more closed-loop system onboard. Value Maritime is already signing contracts for newbuilds of various sizes. Some of these newbuilds will be LNG fuelled and thus will only use the carbon capture element. Other newbuilds will use the entire system, initially sailing on HFO, and once green methanol is available they will be capable of switching to the circular use of CO2. Value Maritime is currently expanding its CO2 services within Europe and to Asia and North America. “We are geographically growing the company, and we are in the process of arranging CO2 outlets for our customers worldwide,” says Nijst. “We are also building a network of CO2 battery hubs where CO2 batteries can be loaded and unloaded.”
8 Circular Economy: Value Maritime’s patented Carbon Capture Module chemically binds captured CO2 to a carrier material and stores it in patented CO2 batteries
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Our Filtree system includes the integrated carbon capture feature, it’s a combined system For the latest news and analysis go to www.motorship.com/news101
