COAST20

Carbon Ocean and Storage Transport 20,000 Ton

Aptamus, through its OSG parent company, was chosen in 2024 for a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct a front-end engineering and design (FEED) study on a comprensive CO2 marine transportation system. The aim of the proposed Carbon Ocean And Storage Transport 20 (COAST 20) project is to demonstrate that large scale marine transport of liquified CO2 from anthropogenic sources to permanent sequestration sites in the Unites States is technically feasible, safe, and cost-effective. Such an inter-regional marine transport system is essential for carbon capture activities in the United States, and especially in large-emission states like Florida where the geology is not conducive to local sequestration and where pipeline infrastructure does not exist. Success in developing industrial scale CO2 capture projects in Florida will require that CO2 captured in Florida be transported to proven pore spaces in Louisiana and Texas for permanent sequestration. Marine transportation will be crucial to achieving this success because even if new pipelines were as cost-effective as a marine transport system, not enough new pipelines could possibly be built across the United States in time to meet the expected explosion in demand for CO2 transport in the coming decade. Regional marine transport systems must be constructed in order to meet that demand, and this project will involve the first full analysis of the economics and technical challenges of marine transport systems for CO2 in the United States.

This project sets out to meet the following objectives:

1. Determine the cost of constructing and operating a marine CO2 transport system and compare it to the costs of equivalent pipelines.

2. Determine the time necessary to put a marine transport system into operation compared to a new pipeline.

3. Develop the technology necessary to process and store the CO2 on the ship and at the loading hub and discharge terminal.

4. Develop the technology necessary to convert the CO2 between pipeline conditions and the ship transport condition.

5. Confirm the necessary footprint and utilities on both the ship and the land sites for the CO2 storage and handling equipment.

The proposed project will involve the construction of CO2 intermodal hubs or terminals in two U.S. states, and the construction of a large CO2-carrying ship in a third state. The ship must be constructed in the United States to qualify for coastal trade under the Jones Act. This Act requires that ships that transport cargo between U.S. ports be constructed in the United States, and owned and crewed by U.S. citizens. The total value of new equipment to be constructed in the U.S. to the benefit of U.S. workers and their communities is expected to exceed $300 million.

Click to enlarge.