Akihabara News (Tokyo) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has announced the completion of a conceptual study for the design of a tanker ship capable of transporting both ammonia and liquefied carbon dioxide.
The study, conducted by MHI unit Mitsubishi Shipbuilding with support from Mitsui OSK Lines, aims to provide the basis for a new class of sea vessel that has potential to become a mainstay of the carrier market.
This could include missions to transport ammonia in one direction, while returning with liquified carbon dioxide from the other direction, thus enhancing efficiency.
Ammonia has been identified by Japanese government and business leaders as an energy source that could play a major role in the nation’s transition to renewable energy. It is a compound consisting of three parts hydrogen and one part nitrogen, releasing zero carbon emissions when combusted in a thermal power plant.
For its part, liquefied carbon dioxide could play an important role in the carbon capture, utilization, and storage chain. An efficient means to transport it to storage sites and other facilities is thus a pending need.
The latest review by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that technologies such as capture, utilization, and storage are “likely to be necessary” if nations are to meet their carbon reduction commitments.
It is carbon dioxide in its liquified form that would be pumped underground for long-term storage at sites such as depleted oil or gas fields, according to most of these schemes.
MHI estimates that the volume of carbon dioxide reduction due to capture, utilization, and storage will amount to 4.3 to 13 billion tons annually by 2050.
The firm has given no timeline regarding when it plans to actually build such tanker ships.
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