A pilot project led by the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) has demonstrated for the first time that carbon dioxide captured onboard a vessel can be transported and integrated into industrial processes, creating a complete value chain that may shape future decarbonisation pathways in shipping.
GCMD released findings from Project CAPTURED, conducted in China on 25 June 2025. The trial centred on Evergreen Marine’s container ship Ever Top, which was fitted with an Onboard Carbon Capture and Storage (OCCS) system developed by Shanghai Qiyao Environmental Technology. The vessel successfully captured 25.44 metric tonnes of CO2, which was then transferred via ship-to-ship and ship-to-truck operations before being delivered to Baorong Environmental for industrial use.
At Baorong, the liquefied CO2 was combined with steel slag to produce precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), a synthetic alternative to conventionally quarried fillers with higher purity and tighter particle control, and post-carbonated slag. This demonstrated how vessel emissions could be converted into low-carbon construction inputs and synthetic fillers. Analysis showed CO2 purity exceeded 99.95% at every transfer stage, and operations followed procedures adapted from liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) protocols with no safety incidents.
The project illustrates both the technical feasibility and the regulatory challenges facing onboard carbon capture. Under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), only CO2 permanently embedded in construction materials qualifies as ‘utilisation’. While PCC can bind CO2 permanently, its applications outside the construction sector, such as in paper, plastics and coatings, are not yet recognised, limiting the scope for market uptake. Expanding the EU ETS list of eligible end uses could unlock new industrial demand and accelerate deployment of maritime carbon capture technologies.
Commercial viability will also require addressing several bottlenecks identified in the report, including the regulatory classification of captured CO2 as hazardous waste, the alignment of tank capacities across the chain, and the installation of custody-transfer grade monitoring equipment. Greater co-location of offloading and utilisation sites could help reduce transport costs and improve economics.
Professor Lynn Loo, CEO of GCMD, said: ‘For OCCS to truly gain traction, what happens downstream is just as important as capturing CO2 onboard. Ships are floating assets that ply the world’s oceans, which makes it vital to harmonise standards and regulations across ports and terminals so that offloading can be carried out safely and at scale. And to unlock economies of scale, maritime CO2 capture must be closely aligned with landside industrial end-use and demand.’
The results will be presented at the International Maritime Organization this week as the debate intensifies over how onboard carbon capture and storage can contribute to the sector’s decarbonisation targets. As the world’s first complete carbon value chain for onboard captured CO2, the trial points to a future in which emissions captured at sea could become an input for land-based industrial production, linking shipping more directly into wider industrial carbon management strategies.
