Svanehøj Pumps for Northern Lights CO2 Carriers

The Danish marine pumps specialist Svanehøj will supply pump systems for two CO2 carriers that will transport liquid CO2 to the Northern Lights storage facilities in Norway.

Northern Lights, the JV owned by Equinior, Shell, and TotalEnergies, is developing infrastructure to transport CO2 from industrial emitters in Norway and other European countries by ship to a receiving terminal in western Norway for intermediate storage, before being transported by pipeline for permanent storage in a geological reservoir 2,600 meters under the seabed.

In October 2021, Chinese shipbuilder Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. won a contract to build two CO2 carriers for the carbon capture and storage project. The two CO2 carriers will each have a cargo size of 7,500 m3 and a length of 130 meters.

The two vessels, which are designed to transport liquid CO2 with purpose-built pressurized cargo tanks, are expected to be ready for delivery by mid-2024. Danish supplier Svanehøj has now been chosen as the supplier of the pump systems that will handle the liquid CO2. Svanehøj will deliver two deepwell cargo pumps of 15 meters for each ship. Credit: Equinor (file image)

"In this project, Svanehøj's multigas technology will be shown to its full potential, as the customer wants the pumps to also be used for handling LPG natural gas. Over the years, Svanehøj has supplied cargo pump systems to more than 1,100 LPG tankers around the world," Svanehøj said.

"We have won the order through our long-standing partner, TGE Marine, which designs and delivers complete Cargo Handling Systems for the CO2 carriers. TGE has chosen our deepwell cargo gas pumps, which they are very familiar with from numerous LPG tankers”, says Thomas Uhrenholt Nielsen, Sales Director, Cargo Gas at Svanehøj.

Svanehøj cited the Global CCS Institute’s report “Global status of CCS 2021”, according to which the pipeline of CCS projects grew by 48% from 2020 to 2021. At the end of 2021, there were 35 projects under development in Europe alone.

"We are therefore seeing an increasing focus on companies experienced in handling liquid CO2. Svanehøj features prominently here, as the company has been supplying cargo pump systems for CO2 carriers since the late 1990s," the company said.

"Thanks to our experience from the relatively few CO2 ships built so far, we are part of the dialogue on several of the upcoming CCS projects. CCS is a focus area in our business strategy, and the order from TGE for Northern Lights is therefore of great strategic importance. This could be a big market for us within the next few years”, says Thomas Uhrenholt Nielsen.