Lomarlabs, a subsidiary of UK-based ship ownership and management company Lomar Shipping, has partnered with climateTech startup Seabound with the aim to reduce carbon emissions on its vessels.
Seabound’s CO2 capture device can be retrofitted into a vessel’s engine exhaust. The carbon then reacts with pebbles of quicklime, which then turn into limestone and lock the CO2 away.
The limestone pebbles are stored onboard until the vessel returns to port, without the need for energy-intensive carbon separation, compression, or liquefaction. Once the ship arrives at the port, the limestone pebbles are offloaded. They are then either sold in pure form or turned back into quicklime, which can be reused onboard another ship and the carbon left can be sold for utilization or sequestration.
Relevant: Successful Shipboard Trials Bring Carbon Capture Closer To Shipping
Onboard Carbon Capture and Sequestration (OCCS) has the potential to play an important role in bringing down carbon emissions in the medium term.
According to Lomar, the preparations to install this equipment onboard the first ship will happen in May and June 2023 and the pilot project will run throughout the summer. This OCCS project is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3 (CMDC3) announced in September last year, which is funded by the UK Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
As part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3, the UK government allocated £60 million ($74.2 million) to 19 flagship projects for clean maritime solutions supported by 92 UK organizations.
lomarlabs launched in March 2023 with the aim to catalyze the deployment of advanced tech solutions aimed at speeding up maritime innovation.
Read more: A New Project To Explore Carbon Capture Technology In Shipping
