Wärtsilä part of carbon capture and storage pilot

Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment and Solvang ASA, a Norwegian shipping company, have agreed on a full-scale pilot retrofit installation of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system on one of Solvang’s ethylene carriers.

Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment designs the retrofitted unit while it also completes a land-based 1 MW test system at its Moss headquarters in Norway. The land-based unit will be completed in autumn 2021, and the companies expect to retrofit the pilot CCS system on the 21,000-cbm Clipper Eos by 2023.

The project is designed to enable both Wärtsilä and Solvang to strengthen their position at the cutting edge of sustainable technology development in shipping. To remain in line with the IMO’s decarbonization targets, Wärtsilä is initially aiming for a 70% reduction in CO2 emissions at the point of exhaust with its pilot unit.

Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment and Solvang ASA have signed a Letter of Intent to design and install a retrofit carbon capture and storage system on Clipper Eos.

“Joining forces with Solvang to build and retrofit a commercially viable CCS technology demonstrates to the industry that we are only two or three years away from bringing to market another vital tool in shipping’s decarbonization toolkit,” said Sigurd Jenssen, director at Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment. “We are excited to see how this collaboration with Solvang evolves in the coming months. Our land-based test unit is nearing completion, and we will then move to making it a reality on the Clipper Eos, ensuring that both Wärtsilä and Solvang remain at the forefront of maritime sustainability technology advancement.”

The Clipper Eos has been time chartered by Marubeni Corp., Tokyo since her delivery from the shipyard in 2019. Marubeni, having more than 40 years’ experience trading and handling ethylene, advise that they are committed to cooperating with Solvang and Wärtsilä to enable the parties to perform relevant testing and installation of equipment on the vessel in a mutual effort to drastically reduce the CO2 footprint of the vessel.

“Carbon capture and storage is an exciting development that we are proud to support, and strongly believe that this technology could be an important key to decarbonize the world’s deep-sea fleet,” said Edvin Endresen, CEO at Solvang ASA. “As a forward-thinking company that is equally passionate about ensuring the industry’s transition to decarbonization, Wärtsilä is the perfect partner as we look to scale up sustainable technologies across our fleet and reduce shipping’s environmental impact on the world.”