Nine Japanese firms launch ship carbon recycling initiativeNine Japanese firms launch ship carbon recycling initiative

The nine participating companies are Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), ClassNK, Japan Marine United (JMU), Sanoyas Shipbuilding Corporation, Hitachi Zosen Corporation, JFE Steel Corporation, JGC Corporation, Nippon Steel, and EX Research Institute.

Formed within Japan’s Carbon Capture & Reuse (CCR) Study Group in August 2019, the cross-industry SCR WG is looking to methanation technology to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero in sea transportation, which accounts for 99.6% of Japanese imports and exports.

The carbon recycling supply chain of methanation fuel involves the supply of feedstock CO2, transportation of the feedstock, methanation, and conversion into marine fuel.

The working group will calculate the estimated amount of CO2 emissions in the supply chain and based on the results, identify technical challenges and develop a roadmap.

The stages of activities include separation, capture and liquefaction of CO2 emitted from steelworks, transportation of liquefied CO2 by ship to a hydrogen supply site, generation of synthetic methane from CO2 and hydrogen by methanation reaction, and liquefaction of the synthetic methane and using it as marine fuel.