A examine commissioned by the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD), in collaboration with Lloyd’s Register and ARUP, has recognized low port readiness as a serious hurdle bottlenecking the adoption of onboard carbon seize and storage (OCCS) methods as a practicable decarbonization resolution.
Whilst the applied sciences required for offloading onboard captured CO2 exist at excessive ranges of maturity, secure operationalisation of captured CO2 switch by educated personnel has not been demonstrated.
The report, titled “Concept study to offload onboard captured CO₂,” discovered that whereas a restricted variety of ports possess the infrastructure to dump liquefied CO2 (LCO2), they’re primarily designed to deal with food-grade CO2. The increased purity requirements that accompany this use limits the interoperability of services to deal with onboard captured CO2.
The examine examined over 10 deliberate LCO2 associated infrastructure initiatives worldwide. Located close to, or with transport hyperlinks from, CO2-emitting industrial clusters, these initiatives are more likely to deal with a lot bigger volumes of captured CO2 than that from OCCS methods; port infrastructure wanted for offloading, storing and transporting onboard captured CO2 will probably must be built-in with these initiatives for economies of scale.
However, as a lot of such initiatives stay in idea section and haven’t reached remaining funding resolution (FID), ports haven’t proceeded with offloading infrastructure investments. This chicken-and-egg dilemma highlights the general infancy of the carbon worth chain.
Furthermore, introducing LCO2 offloading into already advanced port operations will probably influence port effectivity and operational efficiency. The want for added buffer zones to handle the protection issues of LCO2 dealing with and storage can even add to present area constraints at ports and terminals.
By systematically contemplating the wants of all the worth chain, this examine evaluated 4 idea configurations of offloading infrastructure from a attainable 162 eventualities, recognized the operational requirements and security pointers for dealing with LCO2, developed fashions for the quantification of prices for scaled-up infrastructure, articulated manpower competency frameworks for offloading operations, and analysed the potential regulatory eventualities wanted to handle the present uncertainties surrounding LCO2 offloading from OCCS.
The examine decided that captured CO2 in its liquefied kind is probably going probably the most environment friendly and cost-effective choice for onboard storage and transport. Based on this, the examine shortlisted 4 ideas protecting key offloading modalities, resembling ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore, serving as constructing blocks that may be mixed to cowl a wider vary of offloading ideas.
In rating the operability of those ideas, the examine recognized ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore transfers utilizing an intermediate LCO2 receiving vessel as probably the most promising modalities for offloading at scale, with captured CO2 ultimately sequestered or used as feedstock for manufacturing artificial fuels.
Ship-to-terminal switch of captured CO2 saved in ISO tank containers was recognized to be extra appropriate at smaller scales and for finish makes use of that require increased grades of CO2. This modality of switch can also be most appropriate with present port infrastructure and subsequently simpler to pilot right now.
Handling LCO2 onboard presents a novel set of security challenges not generally encountered when dealing with fuels in transport. The examine affords an in-depth examination of hazards, resembling asphyxiation and toxicity, if a leak or a lack of containment takes place.
Unique to CO2 is analysis of its storage at circumstances close to its triple level, the place the gaseous, liquid and stable phases of CO2 co-exist. Storage at or close to the triple level is delicate to impurities, and minor modifications in temperature and stress can result in a section change from liquid to stable CO2, resulting in hazardous conditions, resembling blockage in pipes and build-up of stress.
To deal with these hazards, a sequence of security research, together with a Hazard Identification (HAZID) of offloading, Simultaneous Operations (SIMOPS) and a rough Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA), have been carried out and mitigation measures and emergency response procedures articulated for dealing with LCO2.
The nine-month lengthy examine enhances GCMD’s Project REMARCCABLE (Realising Maritime Carbon Capture to exhibit the Ability to Lower Emissions) by addressing the feasibility of OCCS as a practicable, end-to-end resolution at scale.
