Wärtsilä marine pilot project on carbon capture and storage underway

Wärtsilä said it has conducted extensive research and development to explore how carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be developed and scaled in maritime applications.

To further accelerate development, Wärtsilä is installing a 1MW pilot plant at its test facility in Moss, Norway. This pilot plant will allow Wärtsilä to test its CCS technologies in a range of scenarios and conditions.

The company argues that carbon capture and storage, enabled by scrubbers, must take a central role within the suite of solutions helping to drive decarbonization in shipping, including alternative fuels and efficiency technologies. As there is not only one single solution on shipping’s environmental impact the sector must innovate broadly across multiple areas.

Sigurd Jenssen, director, Exhaust Treatment at Wärtsilä, is excited to see new exhaust gas abatement systems taking shape at the test facility in Moss, Norway.

“Building on the success of existing and well-proven technologies, such as scrubbers, will be vital to succeeding on the industry’s decarbonization goals,” said Sigurd Jenssen, director, Exhaust Treatment at Wärtsilä. “Exhaust gas abatement technologies have reached a point of maturity where it is only right that we explore their wider applications beyond sulfur compliance.”

Given the scale of the decarbonization challenge ahead, Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment believes there is no better place to focus the efforts than on the biggest emission of them all – carbon – and think about the ways that we can use what we have already learned from sulfur, both as an organization and as an industry.

“CCS onboard vessels is clearly a substantial undertaking, but one that we believe we are well placed to pioneer,” Jenssen said. “Carbon capture is exciting because it can provide significant reductions in a relatively short timeframe. This is important in the context of the industry’s overall decarbonization transition, as it will enable us to safeguard existing assets as we move to a cleaner mode of operating.”