Shipping has a pollution problem, but one company has a solution that does more than just eliminate a boat’s carbon dioxide.
London-based Seabound has developed a carbon capture system that transforms CO2 from the engine into limestone, a key ingredient in cement.
Fittingly, the company has installed it aboard the UBC Cork, a cement carrier currently sailing through the Mediterranean Sea. When the ship docks in Norway, the limestone created from the voyage will be offloaded and used to make more cement at Heidelberg Materials’ net-zero plant in Brevik. (The name Heidelberg may ring a bell — earlier this year, it inked a deal to deploy more than 100 autonomous trucks from former Google exec Anthony Levandowski’s startup Pronto.)
Both maritime shipping and cement are highly polluting industries, representing about 3% and 8% of global carbon emissions, respectively.
Their emissions are challenging to address, too. For shipping, batteries are not currently energy-dense enough to enable the sorts of voyages many vessels undertake. And the chemical reaction that forms Portland cement, the most widely used type, releases carbon dioxide, to say nothing of the fossil fuels that typically drive the process.
There’s some urgency for maritime shipping to rein in its pollution: The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which regulates the global shipping industry, will require owners to trim greenhouse gas emissions from their fleets by 30% over the next decade, rising to 65% by 2040.
Seabound is just one company developing potential solutions. Another, Amogy, is proposing using its clever ammonia-cracking technology to deliver zero-emission power.
While ammonia has gained currency in the shipping industry as an energy-dense fuel with the potential to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, its use would require ships to overhaul or completely replace their power plants.
Seabound is proposing a retrofit that would leave existing internal combustion engines intact, adding a carbon capture system that would tap into their exhaust pipes. Heidelberg Materials said that the use of Seabound’s technology would help it reduce the emissions that result from shipping its cement.
