MARITIME IMPACT

Our expertise in stories

GAS ・ DECARBONIZATION

DNV supports innovations

in CO2 carrier design
Establishing a brand-new infrastructure for carbon capture
and storage (CCS) is crucial on our pathway to net zero
emissions. With CO2 shipping a key part of the value chain,
DNV is adapting its rules for the expected new wave of liquid
CO2 carriers and collaborating with industry partners to
support bringing new technologies and solutions to the
market.

 6 Minutes  21 June, 2022  share  Print

To have any hope of meeting the Paris and Glasgow Agreement goals
we need to remove 6–7 gigatonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere
every year from 2050 onwards. Alternative fuels and energy saving will
help, but too much CO2 is being emitted all the time, also as a by-
product of basic industries such as steel and cement. CCS is a key
element in tackling the decarbonization challenge, and time is of the
essence.

Several hundred new ships needed in the next decades

Putting CO2 back underground where it came from, mostly in seabed
reservoirs, is an optimal environmental solution. Northern Europe is
currently leading the way with the Northern Lights joint venture
developing the infrastructure from capture to storage. The
government-supported Longship project, comprising capture facilities
in the eastern part of Norway, will be the first end-to-end pilot to
utilize that infrastructure. “Around 260 million tonnes of CO2 have
been injected and stored on the Norwegian Continental Shelf since
the mid-1990s as part of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes to
maximize oil and gas extraction, so we have a lot of experience
already,” says Erik Mathias Sørhaug, Business Development Leader,
DNV Maritime Advisory.

“We need to rapidly deploy and scale the entire value chain from
capture, storage and transport to offloading and injection for CCS to
have a meaningful impact. A large proportion of the total volume, at
least in the initial stages, will need to be transported by ship, making
marine transport a key holistic component,” he adds. “We foresee a
completely new ship segment developing on the back of increased
transport demand for liquid CO2, with potentially several hundred
ships coming onstream towards 2050.”

Different pressure regimes can increase CO2 cargo capacity

But different CCS applications and levels of scale may require liquid
CO2 to be shipped at different pressure levels, requiring the
development of low-, medium- and high-pressure tank solutions.
Today CO2 is transported for commercial use in northern Europe
using a handful of small ships at medium pressure. The planned
Northern Lights ships will be medium pressure (15 bar at −28°C) as
well, and able to carry LPG if necessary. The technology is
operationally well known, but has limits in terms of tank size and
materials.

Both low- and high-pressure solutions can potentially increase cargo

capacity, but are novel technologies presenting new risks and
challenges in ship design, construction and operations. These include
tank size and optimal arrangement, material selection, condition of the
captured CO2, holding time and the need for re-liquefaction, the
corrosive effects of impurities in the cargo, safety considerations,
reliable monitoring systems and achieving the optimal
balance between cost and complexity.
High pressure technology requires less energy
“A holistic approach is decisive for choosing the most effective
solution. Cost viability boils down to distance to the final storage site,
the amount of CO2 to be transported (per load and on an annual
basis) and the concept for offloading and injection,” says Sørhaug.
Here the industry needs a clearer picture to make sound business
decisions.

High-pressure (35–45 bar) technology is an interesting alternative to

low- and medium-pressure solutions when looking at the cost for the
whole value chain, as the ambient temperature conditions (0–10°C)
require less energy to cool the gas to a cryogenic level for loading,
and reheating at the unloading point. The flexibility and scalability of
the cargo containment systems potentially allows the construction of
very large CO2 carriers of up to 80,000 cubic metres or even more.

In the tank concept developed by Knutsen, the CO2 is stored in bundles of vertically
stacked, small-diameter pressure cylinders.

KNCC forges ahead in high pressure

In the vanguard of high-pressure developments is Knutsen NYK
Carbon Carriers (KNCC). DNV recently awarded the joint venture
between Knutsen Group and NYK Group an Approval in Principle for
its new PCO2 tank concept applying principles adopted from
Knutsen’s proprietary pressurized natural gas (PNG) carrier solution
developed 15 years ago to carry compressed natural gas (CNG).

The CO2 is stored in bundles of vertically stacked, small-diameter

pressure cylinders instead of in large cylindrical tanks.

The small diameter mitigates the risk of pressure variations within the
tubes, avoids dry-ice formation and eliminates the sloshing effects of
liquid CO2 in part or fully loaded condition. KNCC believes the
concept will result in significant cost savings versus cryogenic
strategies.

A promising value chain: the Japanese NYK and the Knutsen Group of Norway have
established a new company for liquefied CO2 marine transportation and storage business

Solving regulatory hurdles to realize the project

While low and medium pressure is handled within the current
regulatory regime, the parameters for transporting CO2 under high
pressure go somewhat outside the current IGC Code, which is the
mandatory regulation for the bulk transport of all liquefied gases with
vapour pressure above 2.8 bar absolute at 37.8°C. “When we began
to consider the KNCC vessel design, it soon became clear that the
solution was technically feasible, but there were some challenges to
ensure it was permissible under the existing regulatory framework,”
Johan Petter Tutturen, Business Development Manager CO2 carriers at
DNV, says.

Moving forward with technical studies and risk assessments

High-pressure CO2 carriers will now be treated as gas carriers under
the IGC Code. Both vessels and equipment will, to the greatest extent
possible, be designed to comply with the code’s prescriptive
requirements and the amended DNV Rules Part 5 Chapter 7 with class
notation “Tankers for CO2”. “We consider the KNCC containment
system adopted from Knutsen’s PNG carrier design to be of novel
configuration in the IGC context. It will therefore need to be assessed
under the provisions for containment systems of novel configuration,”
Tutturen adds.

The requirements for the cylinder-type containment system as defined

in the DNV rules Part 5 Chapter 8 for CNG tankers will be used as
basis for the KNCC design, but with necessary modification to account
for the carriage of liquid CO2 instead of natural gas. “This shows how
DNV’s long-standing rules in sectors like CNG can be adapted to
enable important new technologies. Next up is to optimize the vessel
and containment system design with more detailed technical studies
and risk assessments as part of the classification process,” says
Tutturen.

KNCC CEO Anders Lepsøe applauds the ongoing close cooperation:

“CCS has enormous potential to help decarbonize industry, and we’re
proud to be leading innovations to scale up potential transport
volumes. The validation offered by DNV rules and DNV’s world-class
expertise in CO2 transport have been very valuable as we take the
next steps with the PCO2 concept in this emerging segment.
Contributing to reaching global environmental goals is essential for us
and our owners, and we aim to become an integral part of the CCS
value chain.”

KNCC is set to begin ambient liquid CO2 testing at a new lab in

Norway in autumn 2022, with results demonstrating the feasibility of
the technology expected in the second half of 2023.

DNV helps to identify and prove new business solutions

DNV is the ideal partner to advise on cost and implications for CO2
shipping, with ongoing projects and new rules in development. A
fleet of three to four low-pressure CO2 shuttle carriers is envisaged for
the Stella Maris CCS project where a dedicated floating injection unit
(FIU) in the North Sea will receive the CO2, heat it up to around 150
barg and then inject it continuously into the injection well.
Low pressure increases the maximum cargo tank diameter, allowing
around 6.300 cubic metres of liquid CO2 to be transported in each
cargo tank, enabling larger ships with a total capacity of 50.000 m3 in
each load.

DNV is providing expert input on the concept definition for project

owners Altera Infrastructure and Hoegh LNG, including regulatory
evaluation, environmental impact studies, power demand/dynamic
positioning analysis and AiP of the shuttle tanker design, carbon
collection, storage and offloading unit and the FIU.

“In terms of logistics we collaborate with the full scope of stakeholders

through our Energy Systems business division to identify solutions that
make sense financially and operationally,” Sørhaug says. Further key
services include technology qualification of new cargo containment
systems, guidance and support in the tender process for CO2 tankers,
vessel classification, design support for specialized tanks, piping and
refrigeration systems, and consequence analysis of CO2 leaks and
dispersion using sophisticated computational fluid dynamics
modelling.

 View image copyright information

DNV Expert

Johan Petter Tutturen

Business Development Manager CO2
carriers
DNV Expert

Erik Mathias Sørhaug

Business Development Leader