Did you know that each year ships release upto 1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas which consequently contributes to global climate change and accordingly results in acidification? Moreover, carbon dioxide ships also participate in releasing a number of handful pollutants which eventually contributes to the problem. However, the ship industry is also exploring alternative fuels and electrification to resolve this problem for next-generation ships. And now the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is introducing new regulations from 2023 and setting up a target for the shipping industry to remove emissions upto 50% by 2050.
Work in the sea
Alisha Fredriksson and Roujia Wen, two individuals deeply moved by these issues, set on a voyage together to find a solution, which resulted in the creation of their startup Seabound. ‘Seabound’, a London-based company has developed technology that reduces upto 95% of CO2 emission per ship.
The company has developed a prototype system that uses lime to capture CO2 emissions from the ships. The firm uses an onboard device filled with porous, calcium oxide pebbles which traps emissions from a ship’s exhaust and binds with the CO2 to form calcium carbonate (limestone). The CO2 which is captured in the limestone can be uploaded when the ship docks and sold for utilisation, it also undergoes a process which separates the carbon by using heat. And eventually, the calcium oxide could be reused and the carbon can be sold for use or sequestration, a process that involves the process of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in another form.
Firms like the Japanese shipping company, K-Line and Netherlands-based Value Maritime, are also establishing their own carbon-capture ships using the most established solvent-based approach and this has been commonly used in factories. However, this tested method requires more space and energy when onboard the ships because the process of capturing the CO2 happens on the shipping vessel. And in contrast, Seabound intends to capture and process the CO2 on land.
This system is a second generation form of CO2 capture technology. Furthermore, the firm is also working on a novel compact version of a carbon capture reactor and has a patent pending.
Seabound’s carbon capture tech can work with alternative fuels
Seabound’s carbon capture technology has potential to work with alternative fuels in the long run and this results in a carbon negative system while still allowing large ships to use the existing propulsion. Hence, in this way the company’s CO2 capture results in enabling cargo ship owners to have lower expenses than existing approaches. There will also be no need of investing in new vessels and moreover they can even earn income from the revenue of selling captured CO2.
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