Two new industry partnerships to explore liquid CO2 shipping

Liquified carbon dioxide (CO2) shipping has been gathering momentum with more shipowners, oil firms and carbon capture specialists teaming up to develop value chains.

PHOTO: Petronas executive chief executive Adif Zulkifli (left) and Mitsui OSK Lines chief executive Takeshi Hashimoto (right) in the MoU online signing ceremony. Mitsui OSK Lines

Japanese shipping firm Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Malaysian state-owned petroleum firm Petronas plan to study liquified CO2 shipping as part of setting up a carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) value chain.

MOL has acquired an undisclosed stake in Norway-based Larvik Shipping, which has 30 years of experience with shipping liquified CO2. Larvik will also advise MOL and Petronas on safe shipping.

Also announced today, Norway-based carbon capture firm Aker Carbon Capture and Denmark-based Dan-Unity CO2 will develop a full value chain for CCUS and transport. Dan-Unity CO2 is jointly owned by shipping companies Evergas and Navigator Gas and says it will draw on its experience in shipping gases.

The Scandinavian firms will try to identify solutions to challenges around carbon capture and liquefaction, as well as storage.

This comes on the back of last week’s announcement from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which will build a demonstration ship for long-distance liquified CO2 transport.