Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, has acquired Approval in Principle (AiP) Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) for its onboard carbon capture and storage (OCCS) system developed to capture and store CO2 emitted from ships.
The OCCS subject to the AiP captures, liquefies, and stores CO2 after pre-treatment of the exhaust gas emitted from ships. It is attracting attention as a solution to promote decarbonisation of ships.
Mitsubishi Shipbuilding has developed the system by utilising CO2 capture technologies of MHI, which has experience with onshore facilities, as core technology, and combining it with exhaust gas pre-treatment, CO2 liquefaction, storage, and handling technologies in order to establish as onboard system. Going forward, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding will accelerate the development of this system to bring it into market.
MHI Group is currently pursuing strategic measures to strengthen its business for the energy transition. In conjunction with this initiative, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding is making efforts to contribute to the advancement of the maritime industries in Japan and around the world by utilising its shipbuilding-based marine engineering technologies in addition to the conventional shipbuilding.
The inspection of the basic design for the OCCS system was conducted in accordance with ClassNK’s Guidelines for shipboard CO2 capture and storage systems. MHI Group has been developing the ‘KM CDR (Kansai Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide Recovery Process)’ and the ‘Advanced KM CDR Process’ in collaboration with Kansai Electric Power Co since 1990. As of April 2025, the company has delivered 18 plants adopting these processes. The advanced KM CDR process adopts the KS-21 solvent, which incorporates technological improvements over the amine-based KS-1 and is said to offer superior regeneration efficiency and lower deterioration than KS-1, and it has been verified to provide excellent energy saving performance, reduce operation costs, and result in low amine emissions.
Image: MiP handover ceremony (source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)
