Nippon Steel Corporation, Japan CCS Co., Ltd. (JCCS), Engineering Advancement Association of Japan (ENAA), ITOCHU Corporation, jointly applied as a consortium for “CCUS R&D and Demonstration Related Projects”, which was publicly announced by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), and have been awarded the contract “Research, Development and Demonstration Projects on CO2 Ship Transportation”.
The “Long-Term Strategy under the Paris Agreement as Growth Strategy”, adopted by the Cabinet in June 2019, clearly states the importance of the role of CCUS/Carbon Recycling as a means to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from the use of fossil fuels, while also pointing out the challenge of transporting CO2 due to the distances between CO2 emission sources and storage sites, and asserts that “as a public-private initiative, it is necessary to create a situation where the private sector can make investment decisions by designing appropriate business models to transport CO2 safely and at low cost.”
With a view towards the social implementation of CCUS around 2030, the consortium will jointly conduct research and development of transportation technology regarding the transportation of CO2 from emission sources to utilization/storage points at a scale of 1 million tonnes per year, which will lead to long-distance/mass transportation of CO2 and cost reduction and will also aim to establish ship transportation technology for liquefied CO2 through demonstration and related surveys.
Specifically, the consortium will engage in the following research and development, demonstration, and surveys.
(1) Research and development to establish ship transportation technology for liquefied CO2 (JCCS, ENAA).
(2) Demonstration of CO2 ship transportation at a scale of 10,000 tonnes per year (JCCS, ENAA).
(3) Study of ship transportation business models for the purpose of CCUS (ITOCHU, NIPPON STEEL): Aiming to realize the CO2 collection and transportation business, the consortium will conduct a study on business models regarding CO2 transportation from various mass CO2 emission sources in Japan, including the steel industry.
Research and development on specific issues will be conducted together with subcontractors.
Courtesy of Nippon Steel Corporation.