Lomar to pilot Seabound’s carbon capture technology on vessels

lomarlabs, a new subsidiary of UK-based shipowner Lomar Shipping, part of LIbra Group,  has partnered with climate tech start-up Seabound, in a bid to reduce emissions and catalyse cost-effective methods to capture CO2 onboard vessels.

Seabound has developed a patent-pending compact carbon capture device that can be retrofitted into a ship’s engine exhaust at the funnel. The CO2 chemically reacts with pebbles of quicklime, which then convert into limestone, keeping the CO2 locked in.

The limestone pebbles are temporarily stored onboard before the ship returns to port, without any need for energy-intensive CO2 separation, compression, or liquefaction. Once back in port, the limestone pebbles are offloaded and either sold in pure form or turned back into quicklime and CO2, for the quicklime to be reused onboard another vessel and the CO2 sold for utilization or sequestration.

OCCS is an advanced technology to capture CO2 from greenhouse gas emissions generated during vessel operation, ensuring it is not emitted into the atmosphere. This solution has the potential to play a significant role in reducing CO2 emissions in the medium term, especially for the existing fleet.

Lomar said that preparations to install this equipment onboard the first ship will take place in May and June this year to run the first-ever pilot project throughout this summer. The project is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3 (CMDC3), which was announced in September 2022, funded by the UK Department for Transport and delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.

As part of the CMDC3, the Department allocated £60m to 19 flagship projects supported by 92 UK organisations to deliver real-world demonstration R&D projects in clean maritime solutions.

“lomarlabs is advising on engineering and design for this transformative solution, adapting it to the realities of everyday commercial shipping operations. We help formulate pilot tests on Lomar vessels, and fine-tune the business model using our industry insight to help make a viable business. We share our experience and network to develop solutions that have the potential of delivering systematic change for our maritime industry,” said Stylianos Papageorgiou, Managing Director of lomarlabs.

Seabound Co-Founder & CEO, Alisha Fredriksson, welcomed the collaboration with lomarlabs in the first-of-a-kind ship-based pilot of Seabound’s compact carbon capture technology.

“It has already been instrumental working with Stylianos and his team because they’re keen to jump into the technical details with us and to brainstorm creative approaches to iteratively and cost-effectively de-risk this novel technology. Together we aim to demonstrate that the shipping industry doesn’t have to wait to decarbonize in 5-10+ years, but that there are already viable solutions coming to the market now,” she noted.

“We are keen on exploring technologies that will unlock maritime innovation and lead to the decarbonisation of our industry. With lomarlabs and Seabound’s conjoined efforts, we are excited to accelerate our involvement in the mission towards safer, cleaner oceans and contribute to bringing zero-emission shipping from theory to practice,” CEO of Lomar Shipping Nicholas Georgiou added.

 Lomar Shipping announced the launch of the new tech venture last month. Lomarlabs aims to catalyse the deployment of deep technological solutions, with a view to solving the shipping industry’s biggest challenges.