News / NYK signs up for direct air carbon capture scheme

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS), derided as one of the least efficient possible decarbonisation methodologies, has found a home at Japan’s NYK Line.

The line has signed an agreement with Eneos Corp for the purchase of ship fuel whose emissions would be offset by operation at Eneos’ 1PointFive Stratos DACC plant in Texas, which would generate carbon dioxide removal (CDR credits), NYK said.

While carbon capture (CCS) is generally discussed in the context of ‘point extraction’ or extracting carbon from a place where it is already emitted – from a powerplant smokestack, or ship funnel, for example – and storing it underground, DACCS removes CO2 directly from ambient air.

DACCS have a number of advantages over conventional carbon offsets; compared with forestation (tree-planting), which requires 862sq km per tonne of captured CO2, it uses 0.2sq km per tonne, and can be operated almost anywhere.

However, it also requires a great deal of electrical energy, with current generation technologies requiring up to 2.5MWh – the output of a large wind turbine – per ton of CO2 collected. CCS’ proponents argue that point extraction of CO2 at places of high concentration, is a more economically viable strategy than DACCS from ambient air, of which the CO2 component makes up around 0.04%.

However, critics of the technology argue that nothing should be spent on CCS until every home, business, vehicle and industry is powered by renewable energy, and the carbon remaining to captured in the atmosphere is from the fossil fuel-burning era.

“NYK is promoting CO2 emissions reduction toward achieving net zero emissions by 2050,” said NYK. “This is being done by maximising energy efficiency and transitioning from traditional fossil fuels to next-generation fuels such as LNG, ammonia, and methanol.

“Additionally, for residual emissions that cannot be eliminated through efforts to reduce emissions, NYK aims to achieve net zero CO2 emissions through a ‘reduction’ and ‘removal’ approach by offsetting emissions using CDR credits.

“NYK and Eneos will continue to actively promote the development and dissemination of GHG emissions reduction technologies, including DACCS, to contribute to the realisation of a carbon-neutral society,” it added.