Climate-tech pioneer Seabound sets sights on decarbonizing the shipping industry following successful maiden voyage
- Seabound installed its carbon capture tech onboard a container ship at a shipyard in Turkey and the pilot tests were completed in the Mediterranean Sea, Arabian Sea, and Persian Gulf across two months
- Seabound’s innovative system has the potential to capture up to 95% of CO2 emissions from ships
- The pilot received funding from the UK Government, through The Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3
LONDON, FEBRUARY 8 2024 – Seabound, the UK-based leader in carbon capture solutions for the shipping industry, has successfully tested its novel carbon capture technology on a commercial container ship. This development is a much-needed step in accelerating the decarbonization of the shipping industry. This sector currently contributes to ~3% of global emissions and is considered one of the hardest to abate. The successful pilot marks a turning point in Seabound’s mission to tackle the climate crisis by decarbonizing shipping.
The pilot, conducted in collaboration with the global shipping company, Lomar, and its corporate venture lab, lomarlabs, demonstrated Seabound’s unique system that uses a second-generation carbon capture technology called calcium looping. Seabound’s system was approved for onboard testing by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), with an additional risk assessment completed by Lloyd’s Register. This innovative system has the potential to capture up to 95% of CO2 emissions from a ship’s exhaust, transforming it into solid calcium carbonate pebbles that can be easily offloaded at port for reuse or sale. Seabound and Lomar secured £1.2 million in grant funding from the UK Government as a part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3 to fund part of the pilot.
The project saw Seabound and Lomar leverage a 240m long container ship with a capacity of >3200 containers as a real-world lab. The ship was chartered by Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies, who also supported the project.
The test successfully captured roughly 1 tonne of CO2 per day in a prototype system. The tests prove the viability of Seabound’s novel technology for the shipping industry and lay the foundation for much larger-scale installations in the future. The Seabound team completed the installation at a shipyard in Turkey and sailed onboard the ship for two months to gain hands-on operating experience. A series of tests were completed onboard the ship, which increased the carbon capture rate over time and culminated in a carbon capture efficiency of 78% and sulfur capture efficiency of over 90%.
“Our pilot project demonstrates that we can capture carbon emissions directly onboard ships in a simple and cost-effective way, said Alisha Fredriksson, CEO and Co-Founder of Seabound. “This breakthrough demonstrates that the shipping industry doesn’t have to wait for new fuels or solutions to reduce its emissions in the future – we can start to capture carbon from the existing fleet today.”
“Seabound’s technology presents an attractive and viable solution to reducing carbon emission, with a technology that is simple to install, operate and maintain,” said Stylianos Papageorgiou, Managing Director of lomarlabs. “We are excited to join Seabound’s mission and believe their technology could be instrumental in driving a cleaner future for maritime transport.”
“We’re really pleased that Seabound and Lomar are collaborating on this ambitious marine carbon capture project. The pilot demonstration is a great milestone and we’re excited to see the scale up of this technology to a full deployment. This project is a fantastic example of UK innovators in the maritime industry gaining the benefits from investing in R&D,” said James Lovett, Innovation Lead – Future Maritime Technologies, at Innovate UK.
“Shipping sustainability has a defining role in the clean energy transition. Working with Seabound underscores our commitment to supporting shipowners and operators and the wider industry to move towards a cleaner future, shaping the industry for the better. Seabound’s work is crucial at this time and we are proud to be working alongside them to make it a reality,” said Panos Koutsourakis, Vice President of Global Sustainability, at ABS.
“Supporting this project by Seabound and Lomar underpins our dedication to reducing our climate impact. Our company’s ambitious aim is to be net-zero by 2045. Thus, we are looking forward to the opportunities this foresighted project will bring in the future.” said Georg Eljardt, Senior Director Fleet Innovation & Technology
With the pilot successfully completed, Seabound is now focused on developing its first full-scale carbon capture systems for commercial deliveries from 2025 onwards. Seabound’s rapid progress since founding in late 2021 has already attracted prominent investors, including Y Combinator, Lowercarbon Capital, and Eastern Pacific Shipping, who recognize the game-changing potential of this technology.
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About Seabound
Seabound, a London-based climate tech startup, is leading the way in carbon capture technology for the shipping industry. The company is bringing to market a carbon capture solution that collects carbon directly from shipping exhaust and converts it into calcium carbonate pebbles as part of a chemical process known as calcium looping. The CO2 that is locked into the pebbles can either be reused or sold for building materials.
Since its founding in 2021, Seabound has received widespread industry support and is currently backed by leading investors and shipowners such as Y Combinator, Lowercarbon Capital, and Eastern Pacific Shipping.
About Lomar
Lomar is a leading ship owner and ship management group with a diversified fleet of around 25 bulk carriers, container vessels, and chemical tankers. Lomar has nearly 50 years of industry expertise as a leading ship owner and operator, its fleets having moved millions of tonnes of cargo annually.
About lomarlabs
lomarlabs is a new venture lab launched by Lomar in March 2023, that provides early-stage maritime tech companies with the physical infrastructure, support, industry insight, expertise and funding they need to responsibly test, prove and commercialise their solutions; catalysing their entry into a market that’s rapidly evolving.
About ABS
ABS, a leading global provider of classification and technical advisory services to the marine and offshore industries, is committed to setting standards for safety and excellence in design and construction. Focused on safe and practical application of advanced technologies and digital solutions, ABS works with industry and clients to develop accurate and cost-effective compliance, optimized performance and operational efficiency for marine and offshore assets.
About Hapag-Lloyd
With a fleet of 264 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 2.0 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies. In the Liner Shipping segment, the Company has around 13,500 employees and 400 offices in 135 countries. Hapag-Lloyd has a container capacity of 2.9 million TEU – including one of the largest and most modern fleets of reefer containers. A total of 113 liner services worldwide ensure fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports across the world. In the Terminal & Infrastructure segment, Hapag-Lloyd has stakes in 20 terminals in Europe, Latin America, the United States, India, and North Africa. The roughly 2,600 employees assigned to the Terminal & Infrastructure segment handle terminal-related activities and provide complementary logistics services at selected locations.
About Innovate UK, and Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3
Seabound and Lomar Shipping’s pilot, the Pioneering Onboard Carbon Capture project, is part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition Round 3 (CMDC3), which was announced in September 2022, funded by UK Government 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. Projects will take place in multiple locations around the UK from as far north as the Shetland Isles and as far south as Cornwall.
The CMDC3 is part of the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emission’s (UK SHORE) flagship multi-year CMDC programme. In March 2022, the Department announced the biggest government investment ever in our UK commercial maritime sector, allocating £206m to UK SHORE, a new division within the Department for Transport focused on decarbonising the maritime sector. UK SHORE is delivering a suite of interventions throughout 2022-2025 aimed at accelerating the design, manufacture and operation of UK-made clean maritime technologies and unlocking an industry-led transition to Net Zero.
