Eastern Pacific Shipping vessel bunkered with CO2 liquid

One of Eastern Pacific Shipping’s (EPS) vessels has been bunkered with a liquid chemical that is partly made up of captured CO2.

PHOTO: EPS' tanker Pacific Cobalt has been bunkered with CO2 liquid from the bunker barge Mon-Desir in the Port of Rotterdam. Value Maritime

“This time we are celebrating the very first CO2 liquid bunkering for Value Maritime and Eastern Pacific Shipping Pte. Ltd. and… it’s a first in the world (that we know of!),” said Dutch company Value Maritime.

Value Maritime's Filtree system was installed on EPS-owned tanker Pacific Cobalt in February. The system consists of a scrubber and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) module.

The CCS module uses a liquid chemical to capture CO2 emissions from the vessel's exhaust. "CO2 liquid bunkering" involves loading a liquid chemical into a vessel's tank, which can help capture up to 40% of the vessel's CO2 emissions. The tank can store around 200 mt of CO2 per voyage.

After the tank is filled with CO2, the chemical is pumped out, or "de-bunkered", and delivered to end customers “such as greenhouses or synthetic fuel producers, who will be able to release the CO2 on demand.”

Value Maritime says the Pacific Cobalt will be de-bunkered in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Value Maritime has explained that the scrubber on its Filtree system removes sulphur from the exhaust gas flow so the “ship operators can continue to use the existing high-sulphur fuel instead of the more expensive low-sulphur fuel.”

By Konica Bhatt

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