Japan’s shipping giant MOL said it has completed a concept study for a vessel that can carry both ammonia and liquefied CO2.
MOL said in a statement on Thursday this vessel type could become the “mainstream” in this transport field.
The firm cooperated with Mitsubishi Heavy Industry’s Mitsubishi Shipbuilding on this research aimed at meeting future demand for transport of liquefied CO2 and ammonia.
According to MOL, the LCO2 carrier can play a “key role in efficiently transporting captured liquefied CO2 to storage reservoirs or usage sites in the value chains of carbon dioxide capture utilization and storage (CCUS).”
MOL entered the liquefied CO2 ocean transport business last year through investment in Norway’s Larvik Shipping, which has managed LCO2 carriers for industrial customers in Europe for over 30 years.
In addition, there is growing interest in ammonia as a “next-generation clean energy source” that does not emit CO2 during combustion, MOL said.
The combined carrier would have a cargo capacity of around 50,000 cbm.
In the future, based on this ship type, MOL “continually studies other various ship types with Japanese maritime clusters to flexibly meet customer needs based on the overall value chain,” it said.