Northern Lights Carbon Capture Project Orders Third Liquified CO2 Transport Ship

The Northern Lights carbon capture and storage joint venture has placed an order for its third ship that will be used to transport captured CO2 in liquified form.

The shipbuilding contract was signed with Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Co. in Dalian, China, where the first two ships are currently under construction. The latest newbuild will be built to similar specs with a cargo capacity of 7,500 m3 and 130-meters in length. The ships are designed to run on dual-fuel LNG, with a wind-assisted propulsion system and air lubrication to reduce carbon intensity by around 34% compared to conventional systems.

The three sister ships will become the world’s largest dedicated CO2 ships, custom-built with pressurized cargo tanks for transportation of liquefied CO2. The tanks will keep the LCO2 at 15 bar(g) of pressure and a temperature of -26°C.

The first two ships, which were ordered in 2021, are scheduled for delivery in mid-2024.

The Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project, one of the world’s first industrial-scale CCUS projects, is on schedule to start operations in 2024.

Once operational, the ships will load captured and liquefied CO2 from European industrial emitters in and transport it to the Northern Lights receiving facilities in Øygarden on the west coast of Norway. From there, the CO2 will be intermediately stored in onshore tanks before transported through a pipeline to an offshore reservoir for permanent and safe storage at a depth of 2,600 meters below the seabed.

The contract award was marked by a signing ceremony at the shipyard on August 30th, attended by Managing Director of Northern Lights, Børre Jacobsen.

“We are very pleased to announce that we are increasing our shipping capacity. Our shipping solution is scalable and provides the necessary flexibility to service industrial emitters across Europe. The award of a ship building contract for a third ship is a response to an increasing demand for cross-border CO2 transport and storage,” says Jacobsen.

“As the construction base for the world largest and first dedicated CO2 ships for Northern Lights, DSOC is honored to be the pioneer shipyard in the decarbonisation industry and to directly provide the CO2 shipping solutions for the increasing business of Northern Lights,” says Yingzhi Sun, Chairman of DSOC. “Products in clean and environmental protection industry have now become our major strategy. As one of the most competitive offshore yards and the first yard to construct the dedicated CO2 ships, we have confidence and capability to deliver high quality products to Northern Lights, and build long-term strategic relationships in the upcoming future. DSOC will create more value to our clients by quality services and unremitting efforts.”

The Northern Lights JV is comprised of Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.

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