Can shipping reach net zero without abandoning conventional fuels?
Most discussions about maritime decarbonization focus on alternative fuels. But what if the largest short-term climate impact comes from removing emissions rather than replacing fuels?
In this presentation, Sigurd Jensen, Head of Exhaust Treatment Business at Wärtsilä, explains why onboard carbon capture could become one of shipping’s most powerful decarbonization tools.
Drawing on years of research, full-scale testing, and real-world operation aboard the Clipper Eris pilot vessel, Sigurd shares practical lessons from bringing carbon capture out of the laboratory and into commercial shipping.
You will learn:
- Why carbon capture may offer the lowest cost per tonne of CO₂ reduced compared to many alternative pathways
- How onboard capture systems work in practice, from exhaust gas treatment to CO₂ liquefaction and storage
- What Wärtsilä has learned from more than four years of testing and extensive sea trials
- Why a capture rate around 70% is often considered the operational “sweet spot”
- How exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) can significantly improve carbon capture performance
- The practical realities of storing and offloading captured CO₂ on commercial vessels
- Why regulation and economic incentives may be the key factors determining adoption
Rather than presenting carbon capture as a future concept, this session focuses on operational experience, engineering trade-offs, and real performance data gathered from ships already sailing with the technology onboard.
The message is clear: the challenge is not necessarily the fuel itself, but the emissions it creates. And if those emissions can be captured, conventional fuels may remain part of shipping’s path toward net zero.
This presentation is from the meeting Carbon Capture Onboard - From Ship to Storage. The text and captions are AI-generated.
