Looking to fill what they see as a critical gap in the emerging carbon capture and storage initiatives, Malaysia’s MISC Berhad and Samsung Heavy Industries have developed design concepts for a floating CO2 storage unit. The companies reported that their versatile design for a floating unit in the CCS value chain in the maritime industry secured an Approval in Principle (AiP) from DNV.
The companies pointed to a critical need particularly when CO2 emitters lack access to nearby sequestration sites. As countries move forward mandating capture and storage for hard to decarbonize industrial applications, Berhad and Samsing point to the need for maritime transport and storage of CO2 that can enhance the efficiency of the CCS process.
They are the latest to propose a Floating CO2 Storage Unit as the solution to the emerging need. According to the companies, the FCSU could be deployed across multiple depleted offshore oil and gas fields that are targeted as CO2 storage sites. The floating unit would be an alternative to building individual pipelines from collection sites to the storage locations.
The FCSU they said can serve multiple purposes. It could be an intermediate CO2 storage unit or work in tandem as an injection vehicle to transfer CO2 to the offshore reservoirs. They are also exploring the potential to use the floating unit for CO2 liquefaction.
The unit has a flexible design which they currently expect would provide for a total storage capacity of 100,000 cbm. Its injection capability would be 5 million metric tons annually.
The AiP from DNV confirms the technical feasibility of the concept as well as initial conformity to the applicable rules, industry codes, and standards It is the result of a collaboration launched between MISC Berhad and Samsung Heavy Industries that looks to combine the maritime expertise with the shipbuilder’s experience in offshore engineering.
Samsung Heavy Industries points out that the floating unit would be another element in the overall value chain. They have also been working on CO2 carriers saying that this latest design would provide the capability of an offshore terminal.
Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) are also exploring a similar approach combining carriers with FSO units. DNV and ABS in June 2023 awarded Approval in Principle for portions of their system’s design as the market begins to emerge for floating CO2 units.
