Free Practitioner

Onboard Carbon Capture

What it takes to capture CO2 from a ship's own exhaust: the technologies, the energy penalty, the tanks, the missing shore infrastructure, and the regulatory question that decides whether any of it pays.

Lessons
5
Quiz questions
40
Time
About 33 min
Who it's for
Technical managers, superintendents, newbuilding and retrofit teams, and chartering or compliance staff who need to judge onboard capture proposals on their merits.
Assumed knowledge
None. Our free course Maritime Regulations, Explained is useful background for the final lesson, which leans on EU ETS and FuelEU mechanics.
Taught by

Christos Papandreou

CEO & Founder, Blue Autonomy

  • Naval architect and marine engineer, National Technical University of Athens
  • 15 years of experience in fleet performance and operational data
  • Chief Scientist, NEMO — previously DeepSea Technologies, StormGeo, Athenian Sea Carriers, PwC

Part of the Maritime Decarbonisation & Compliance specialisation.

What you will be able to do

By the end of the course. Each outcome names the lessons that deliver it, and each lesson's quiz checks it.

  1. Explain the case for post-combustion capture at sea — keep the engine and fuel, treat the exhaust — and its honest limits: the dilute CO2 in marine exhaust, and why a tonne captured is not a tonne saved once the plant's own fuel burn is counted. Lesson 1
  2. Compare amine absorption (absorber–regenerator cycle, reboiler heat, sulphur sensitivity) with membrane separation (pressure-driven, no steam, penalised by low CO2 partial pressure), and quantify the ladder from rated to effective to well-to-wake capture using the published MMMCZCS VLCC case (82% rated → ~74–78% net of energy penalty → ~55–60% well-to-wake). Lessons 1, 2
  3. Specify what a capture installation demands from the ship — space, weight, reboiler steam (waste heat topped up by a boiler), electrical power, liquefaction, and storage for roughly 3.1 t of CO2 per tonne of fuel burned — and cite what class already requires (ABS, ClassNK) and what the capex studies found (roughly 26–70% of newbuild cost, ~40% average). Lesson 3
  4. Follow captured CO2 from the ship's tanks through the offload options (terminal, LCO2 carrier, barge, ISO tanks) to geological storage or utilisation, and explain why the shore side of the chain is the binding constraint, why storage and utilisation differ for crediting, and why fixed-route trades move first. Lesson 4
  5. Determine where captured CO2 is and is not credited as the rules stand — deductible under EU ETS only for tonnes handed to a transport operator or storage site (or permanently mineralised) per the Commission's guidance, invisible to FuelEU's fuel-based formula, and invisible to DCS and CII — and reason through when the economics close: a credit, an offload route, and a cost per tonne below the value per tonne. Lesson 5

Onboard carbon capture makes an unusual promise: keep the engine, keep the fuel, and remove the CO2 from the exhaust instead. For a world fleet built around conventional fuel, that is either the most pragmatic idea in decarbonisation or an expensive way to postpone the real decision, and serious people hold both views.

This course works through the question in the order an owner would. Why capture at sea at all, and what post-combustion capture involves. What the technology actually is: amine absorption, the membrane alternative, and the energy penalty that separates the capture rate on the datasheet from the capture rate the climate sees. What the plant demands from the ship: space, weight, steam, power, liquefaction, and tanks, plus what class requires and what the capex studies say. Then the half of the chain the ship cannot control, port reception, LCO2 carriers, and onward storage, and finally the decisive question: where captured CO2 is and is not credited under EU ETS, FuelEU and the IMO instruments, and when the economics close.

Every number quoted comes from a published study you can read yourself, nearly all of them open and one free after registration; the links are woven into the lessons.

What the course covers

  1. Why Capture CO2 on a Ship? 6 min
  2. Amines, Membranes, and the Energy Penalty 7 min
  3. Fitting the Plant into the Ship 7 min
  4. The Offload Chain: The Ship Is the Easy Half 6 min
  5. Does It Count? Regulation and the Economics 7 min

Start the first lesson →

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