Solvang Orders World's First Full-Scale Onboard Carbon Capture Retrofit

Seatrium, the newly-merged shipyard conglomerate of Keppel O&M and Sembmarine, has secured a contract for what it believes to be "the world’s first full-scale, turnkey carbon capture and storage (CCS) retrofit." CCS technology is an area of active R&D, as it has substantial advantages in fuel availability and fuel cost when compared with other low-emissions options. 

Seatrium will install a seven-megawatt capacity carbon capture system from Wärtsilä aboard the ethylene carrier Clipper Eris, owned by gas carrier and petchem specialist Solvang ASA. The capture system will use amine scrubber technology to pull about 70 percent of the CO2 out of the exhaust gas from the main engine. This CO2 stream will be chilled, liquefied and stored on board the vessel for later offloading. 

Seatrium will carry out engineering, procurement, upgrading of electrical and automation systems, and integration of the carbon capture and compression/storage system.

Solvang says that it will pilot this CCS technology aboard Clipper Eris for one year while the vessel operates in commercial service. If it proves successful, Solvang will install it on more vessels, said fleet manager Tor Ask in a statement.  

The Norwegian company began co-developing CCS scrubber technology with Wärtsilä and Sintef in 2021, and began full-scale testing in 2022. “There are no easy solutions, so we are looking for the big game-changer,” said Edvin Endresen, CEO at Solvang, at the launch of the test phase. 

The project has support from Enova, the Norwegian government's innovation and R&D agency.