Argus Media Limited

11/11/2021 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/11/2021 02:49

Japan’s MHI partners European firms on liquefied CO2

Japanese engineering firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industry (MHI) is to study the liquefied carbon dioxide (CO2) shipping sector with European energy firms to develop liquefied CO2 carriers and to expand the carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) value chain.

MHI will join the CO2 Logistics by Ship phase 3 project, which aims to share knowledge and information about CO2 transportation by vessels as well as by pipelines, with French industrial gas firm Air Liquide, BP, TotalEnergies, four Norwegian companies - Brevik Engineering, state-controlled Equinor, offshore system operator Gassco and research institute Sintef , along with Japanese trading firm Mitsubishi.

MHI anticipates a rise in future demand for liquefied CO2 carriers, seeing CCUS as one of the ways to realise a carbon neutral society. The company's subsidiaries Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering will provide their gas handling technology for vessels such as LPG and LNG carriers, along with CO2 capture technology.

MHI is also developing liquefied CO2 carriers with Japanese shipowner Nippon Yusen Kaisha and Mitsui OSK Line.

Tokyo is gearing up its decarbonisation strategy to achieve the country's 2050 carbon neutral goal. The country's ministry of land, infrastructure, transportation and tourism last month set a goal for net zero greenhouse gas emissions from Japanese-owned ocean-going vessels by 2050.

By Maiko Nakashima