Seabound: Inside a Doncaster facility aiming to cut global shipping emissions by millions of tonnes

But since late 2021, marine carbon capture firm Seabound has been working on methods of capturing such emissions, with a goal to capture 100 million tonnes of CO₂ annually by 2040, equivalent to roughly ten percent of global shipping emissions.

In an event held at the company’s Seabound North Doncaster research and development facility, the firm recently marked a major milestone as it celebrated the completion of its first full-scale carbon capture systems.

Following successful land-based testing using a large diesel generator, the systems are now set to be deployed aboard the UBC Cork, a 5,700 gross tonne cement-carrying vessel.

“This moment represents years of engineering, testing, and collaboration finally coming together,” said Alisha Fredriksson, CEO and co-founder of Seabound.

“These systems will be the first of many over the years to come as we scale to even broader impact.”

The company’s method of caputring emissions uses that it had named “Seabound Containers” — modular onboard carbon capture systems in the size of 20-foot shipping containers that trap CO₂ from a ship engine’s exhaust gas.

In addition to CO₂, the system removes sulphur emissions and also reduces fuel costs, according to Seabound.

The firm has also recently unveiled its second-generation Seabound Containers, which enable horizontal, instead of vertical arrangements on vessels.

Seabound usedits recent event to make a string of announcements, including a new partnership and €1.5m in funding from the European Space Agency to support its scale-up and commercial deployments.

Nil Angli, space solutions maritime lead at the European Space Agency, said: “The maritime industry relies on space-based data and satellite communications every day.

“We are proud to partner with early-stage companies as they move from innovation to commercialisation, and Seabound is a model of what our Business Applications and Space Solutions programme is designed to support.”

Since its founding, Seabound has completed two world-first pilot projects and raised more than £8.5m in combined equity and grant funding. The company also won two rounds of the UK Government’s Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.

Seabound also recently announced a partnership with cement industry supplier, Thyssenkrupp Polysius, to produce green lime, enabling what it described as “scalable and net-positive onboard carbon capture for global shipping”.

Following successful pilots with Lomar Shipping, lomarlabs and Hapag-Lloyd, as well as with STAX Engineering and Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Seabound has now transitioned from pilots to commercial deployment.

The initial full-scale systems will serve UBC Cork, a ship owned by Hartmann Group, managed by InterMaritime Shipmanagement, and chartered to global cement leader Heidelberg Materials.

“Seabound offers Heidelberg Materials a route to Scope 3 emissions reductions that was previously unattainable for us,” said Lars Erik Marcussen, project manager, logistics at Heidelberg Materials Northern Europe.

“We now have a practical pathway to cutting our emissions in transport, and can move closer to delivering our net-zero concrete product.”

Seabound has said it is now “actively engaging” further shipowners, cargo owners, ports, and industrial partners to accelerate adoption of its systems and maximise impact across the sector.

Titled the “Seabound Sendoff”, Seabound's recent event brought together more than 70 attendees from local government, the maritime sector, lime manufacturing, and the investor community.

Seabound staff led tours of the facility and walkthroughs of the company’s carbon capture technology, followed by a formal programme announcing new partnerships and product developments.