Korean LCO2 storage tanks unveiled

A South Korean manufacturer has unveiled how the world’s largest liquefied carbon dioxide (LCO2) storage tanks will look like.

Sejin Heavy Industries is constructing a pair of LCO2 tanks for Evangelos Marinakis’ Capital Maritime, which ordered last July two firm 22,000 cu m ships at Hyundai Mipo, with options for two more.

The nascent LCO2 seaborne trades are currently very small in scale with Marinakis’ orders the current record-breakers in terms of capacity.

Transporting carbon dioxide in liquid form requires maintaining high pressures up to four to five times atmospheric levels and low temperatures below -78°C. Due to its sensitivity to external conditions, where it can easily transition between gas, liquid, and solid states, LCO2 tanks require much thicker plates than those used for LPG tanks, about 50% thicker, to sustain the necessary high pressure and low temperature.