Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has signed an agreement with a Japanese oil company, Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd. (Cosmo Oil) to conduct detailed studies examining the establishment of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain.

The agreement will lead to a number of in-depth studies relating to the establishment of a CCS value chain, permitting CO2 emissions to be captured at Cosmo Oil’s refineries in Japan, before being transported overseas for sequestration.

One of the studies will examine the anticipated volumes to be captured at Cosmo Oil’s refineries, and the expected specifications of the liquefied CO2 (LCO2) carriers required to transport the carbon from the refineries themselves to sequestration sites. The second agreement outlines a generic value chain study, with the aim of producing estimates of the costs of transporting carbon based on the results of the first study.

Cosmo Oil is accelerating efforts to explore the possibility of installing carbon capture technology at its refineries in Japan. On 30 October, Cosmo Oil announced plans to conduct a joint trial with Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba ESS) of a highly efficient CO2 electrolysis technology that electrolyses CO2 to produce carbon monoxide (CO).