What is a centrifugal carbon capture system?
Compact, highly efficient carbon capture systems are gaining traction to help decarbonisation efforts in shipping and beyond.
The shipping and offshore industries continue to embrace innovation in a bid to meet their decarbonisation targets, with one emerging technology starting to gain attention: onboard centrifugal carbon capture.
This technique uses centrifugal forces created by rotating packed beds (RPB) to more effectively distribute the solvent employed for capturing CO2 and intensify the mass transfer processes. By replacing the large columns traditionally used in carbon capture systems with compact, highly efficient RPBs, the technology significantly reduces the footprint of a carbon capture plant, by as much as 75% according to energy technology company Baker Hughes.
This not only means lower capex (capital expenditure) but also makes the technology a viable candidate for onboard ships and offshore structures - captured carbon dioxide can be compressed, liquefied, and stored during a voyage and then offloaded at a suitable facility ashore.
A maritime first
This is still an emerging technology, but this summer US-based Carbon Ridge achieved a maritime first when it installed its centrifugal onboard carbon capture system (OCCS) aboard Scorpio Tankers’ STI Spiga, a 110,000dwt products tanker. Installed at Besiktas Shipyard in Turkey, the modular system offers high capture efficiency with 75% less space than traditional units, with the compressed CO2 stored onboard.
The system is designed for both retrofits and newbuilds and is fuel-agnostic, providing shipowners with flexible decarbonisation options.
Contractors, mindful of their clients’ decarbonisation goals, are also investigating the potential of centrifugal carbon capture.
Summer 2025 saw London-headquartered CCS specialist Carbon Clean pair up with FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) provider MODEC to jointly develop and scale a modular carbon capture technology, known as CycloneCC.
Under the agreement, a pilot plant is targeted for installation on an FPSO in 2026, followed by a first commercial-scale deployment, targeting capture of up to 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. A further scale-up will increase the capacity to capture approximately 300,000 tonnes of CO2 per year in the future.
Why centrifugal systems are built for offshore
According to the company, compact centrifugal carbon capture technology is “uniquely suited to the offshore maritime environment”, with the RPB design enhancing performance under vessel motion. “Its compact footprint is up to 50 percent smaller than traditional solutions, with key equipment sizes reduced by a factor of ten.”
Aniruddha Sharma, Chair and CEO of Carbon Clean, speaking at the launch of the MODEC tie-up, described the collaboration as “a major step toward commercialising onboard carbon capture for FPSOs and sets a precedent for the broader maritime industry”.
This is important, because the IMO’s Net-Zero Framework continues to develop a pathway to maritime decarbonisation.
Most climate experts agree that a rapid acceleration in deployment of CCUS (carbon capture, usage and storage) technology will be essential to keep climate goals in sight, especially in hard-to-abate industrial sectors such as cement, steel, and chemical production. By harnessing centrifugal forces to reduce size and cost, this new generation of carbon capture systems could be the turning point for industrial decarbonisation - both offshore and onshore.
Tell us what you think about this article by joining the discussion on IMarEST Connect.
Image: Scorpio Tankers’ STI Spiga, fitted with a centrifugal onboard carbon capture system. Credit: Carbon Ridge.
