A commercial carbon capture system developed for ships will supply calcium carbonate - limestone - to Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik, Norway.
UK-based startup Seabound has created a patented technology that traps exhaust gas produced by a vessel’s diesel engines and funnels it into a big, high-pressure chamber filled with calcium hydroxide pebbles, which absorb the CO2 to create calcium carbonate. Following successful testing last year, the company has set itself a target of installing the system on 1000 vessels of different types by the end of the decade.
The modular system, which can be retrofitted to a ship with minimal adaptations, is reckoned to be able to capture 90-95 per cent of CO2 and has recently been installed on the cement carrier UBC Cork, owned by Germany's Hartmann Group. While depending on infastructure it is possible to release the CO2 through heating (and reuse the calcium oxide) in this instance, the calcium carbonate will be used in green cement production at the Brevik facility.
Seabound CEO and co-founder, Alisha Fredriksson, comments: “We’re especially excited to be advancing this work in Brevik, a strategic location that’s rapidly establishing itself as a global hub for CCS with Heidelberg’s world-first facility and the Northern Lights pick-up point."
