Lloyd’s Register: Onboard Carbon Capture Could Bridge Fuel Transition

Lloyd's Register Yacht Services says onboard carbon capture and storage could provide a practical route to lower CO2 emissions for some existing vessels while alternative-fuel supply chains continue to develop. A new LR report argues that the technology has moved beyond the concept stage, but warns that it is only suitable where vessel design, trading pattern and shore infrastructure support it.

The findings are relevant to the large-yacht sector because many yachts remain in service for decades and undergo repeated machinery and hotel-system refits during their working lives. Carbon capture therefore joins alternative fuels, hybridisation and efficiency improvements as a technology that owners of long-life assets may need to assess, even if it is not appropriate for every yacht.

Current systems are already capturing part of exhaust CO2

LR reports that current full-scale installations are capturing around 30 to 40 per cent of CO2 emissions, while larger pilot projects are targeting rates of about 70 per cent. The attraction is that capture equipment can potentially reduce emissions from vessels that continue operating conventional engines rather than waiting for a complete change in fuel infrastructure.

That potential comes with significant engineering trade-offs. LR says many current applications can impose a fuel-consumption penalty of roughly 15 to 30 per cent, while the capture plant and stored CO2 require substantial onboard space that may be difficult to justify on vessels where volume is already at a premium.

Space and remaining vessel life are critical

The report identifies stronger candidates as vessels with more than ten years of useful life remaining, meaningful exposure to carbon pricing, sufficient machinery or technical space and access to a credible CO2 offloading chain. Those conditions underline why any yacht application would have to be studied individually rather than treated as a standard retrofit package.

On a superyacht, designers would also need to examine the effect on weight, stability, machinery ventilation, tank capacity, service access and guest-space priorities. A system that is commercially workable on a tanker or feeder vessel may need a substantially different engineering case when the platform is a yacht.

Port reception remains the weak link

LR identifies limited port infrastructure for receiving captured CO2 as the main barrier to wider deployment. Carbon can only be permanently accounted for if the vessel has somewhere to discharge it into a transport and storage chain, which makes shore-side infrastructure just as important as the equipment fitted onboard.

Regulation is another moving part, with different carbon-accounting frameworks still developing their treatment of captured emissions. For yacht owners and shipyards, the practical message is to watch the technology as part of a broader decarbonisation toolkit while remaining cautious about installation until the energy penalty, onboard-space requirement and offloading network make sense for a specific vessel.