Key Takeaways

• Five companies that convert ship emissions into value include Carbon Engineering, Sunfire, Liquid Wind, Cummins, and Bloom Energy.
• In general, an effective shipping emissions strategy includes three key steps: monitoring, reporting, and verification; greenhouse gas reduction targets; and further measures.
• After analyzing the companies listed above, we determined that emission conversion offerings are generally implemented using infrastructure and technology, partnerships, and measurable solutions. 

Intro

Company Analysis

Carbon Engineering

• Company Name: Carbon Engineering 
• Website URL: https://carbonengineering.com/ 
• Founding Date: 2009 
• Headquarters: Squamish, British Columbia, Canada 
• Description: Carbon Engineering is an environmental company devoted to solving climate change through the use of Direct Air Capture technology. 
• Emissions Solution: The company provides three avenues of emission conversion: permanent carbon removal, ultra-low carbon fuels, and low carbon intensity products.
•  Permanent carbon removal uses Direct Air Capture facilities "to remove any CO2 emission, from any location, and any point in time at a fixed cost." In addition, the company will "measure the exact amount of CO2 that is captured and permanently stored."
•  Ultra-low carbon fuels are synthetic liquid fuels produced at the company's AIR TO FUELS plants that work in any vehicle "and are almost completely carbon neutral." These fuels are suitable for shipping fleets or shipping fuel refining and distribution.
•  Low-carbon intensity products use atmospheric CO2 emissions to produce industrial-grade CO2, sustainable materials such as "steel, concrete, fillers, and coatings," chemical products such as "plastics, industrial chemicals, fertilizers, and carbonates," and products such as carbon fiber.

Sunfire

• Company Name: Sunfire 

• Website URL: https://www.sunfire.de/en/ 
• Founding Date: 2010 
• Headquarters: Dresden, Sachsen, Germany 
• Description: Sunfire is a renewable energy company dedicated to converting CO2 emissions into renewable fuels using "electrolyzers to produce renewable hydrogen and syngas."
• Emissions Solution: Sunfire uses alkaline electrolyzers and SOEC electrolyzers to tailor "industrial renewable hydrogen and e-Fuel projects: From industry over mobility to energy." E-Fuel solutions have been used in the shipping industry to achieve carbon-neutrality, electrical efficiency, infrastructure integration, product quality, and scalability.

Liquid Wind

• Company Name: Liquid Wind 

• Website URL: https://www.liquidwind.se/ 
• Founding Date: 2017 
• Headquarters: Göteborg, Vastra Gotaland, Sweden 
• Description: Liquid Wind is an alternative fuel company dedicated to providing scalable renewable methanol solutions to the maritime transportation industry.

• Emissions Solution: The company provides renewable fuel solutions by helping to "develop, finance, build and manage commercial-scale eMethanol facilities." The company uses partnerships to collaborate and integrate new technologies into its facilities. The process that will be used at these facilities will "capture carbon dioxide and combine this with hydrogen, made from renewable electricity and water, to produce carbon-neutral fuel, eMethanol."

Cummins

• Company Name: Cummins 

• Website URL: https://www.cummins.com/new-power 
• Founding Date: 1919 
• Headquarters: Columbus, Indiana, United States 
• Description: Cummins is a diesel engine manufacturer that "designs, manufactures, distributes and services diesel and natural gas engines, electric power generation systems and engine-related component products, including filtration, exhaust aftertreatment, fuel systems, fuel systems, controls systems, air handling systems and electric power."
• Emissions Solution: Cummins develops technology used in "battery, fuel cell, and hydrogen-production technologies." The company has over 500 electrolyzers in operation including the largest PEM electrolyzer in the United States and it is a leader in SOFC technology which is used to create carbon-neutrality in commercial and industrial settings.

Bloom Energy

• Company Name: Bloom Energy 

• Website URL: https://www.bloomenergy.com/ 
• Founding Date: 2001 
• Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California, United States 
• Description: Bloom Energy is a clean energy company that uses on-site power generation systems adapted from NASA's Mars program to "produce clean, reliable, affordable power."
• Emissions Solution: Bloom Energy provides clean energy as a service using solid oxide fuel cell technology through an Energy Server that "is a distributed generation platform that provides always-on power. The Bloom Energy Server can be personalized to deliver a combination of reliability & resiliency, sustainability, and cost predictability."

Additional Companies

• The following companies have been identified through the course of research as companies that convert emissions, however, there is no mention of "ships," "shipping," or "maritime" emissions on their websites:
•  Econic Technologies 
•  Newlight Technologies 
•  Avantium 

Emissions Conversions Business Model

Business Model

• In general, an effective shipping emissions strategy includes three key steps: monitoring, reporting, and verification; greenhouse gas reduction targets; and further measures.
•  Monitoring, reporting, and verification: This is the foundation for a comprehensive understanding of greenhouse emissions.
•  Greenhouse gas reduction targets: This is the target percentage of reduction over a set course of time.
•  Further measures: This includes looking for future innovations and solutions as well as the application of a market-based measure.
• After analyzing the companies listed above, we determined that emission conversion offerings are generally implemented using the following model:
• Infrastructure and technology: In general, companies develop a technology offering that creates carbon-neutral solutions such as e-fuels or zero-carbon results. That technology is then developed into dedicated facilities that are used to produce these products or solutions.
• Partnerships: Most companies, in general, use partnerships and investors to build and maintain scalable solutions. These partnerships include both investors and innovators that finance and innovate the solutions and refiners and consumers that use the solutions across commercial industries.
• Measurability: Finally, companies offer measurable solutions that shipping companies can use to see the efficiency and scalability of the emission solutions. Some companies even offer services to track and report carbon-neutrality.

Calculations

• The following calculations and notes were taken directly from EPA.gov verbatim to ensure accuracy:
•  Electricity Reductions (kilowatt-hours): "The Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator uses the AVoided Emissions and geneRation Tool (AVERT) U.S. national weighted average CO2 marginal emission rate to convert reductions of kilowatt-hours into avoided units of carbon dioxide emissions."
•  1,562.4 lbs CO2/MWh × (4.536 × 10-4 metric tons/lb) × 0.001 MWh/kWh = 7.09 × 10-4 metric tons CO2/kWh ***"AVERT, U.S. national weighted average CO2 marginal emission rate, year 2019 data"
•  Gallons of gasoline consumed: "This value assumes that all the carbon in the gasoline is converted to CO2 (IPCC 2006)."
•  8,887 grams of CO2/gallon of gasoline = 8.887 × 10-3 metric tons CO2/gallon of gasoline
•  Gallons of diesel consumed: "This value assumes that all the carbon in the diesel is converted to CO2 (IPCC 2006)."
•  10,180 grams of CO2/gallon of diesel = 10.180 × 10-3 metric tons CO2/gallon of diesel
•  Therms and Mcf of natural gas: "When using this equivalency, please keep in mind that it represents the CO2 equivalency of CO2 released for natural gas burned as a fuel, not natural gas released to the atmosphere. Direct methane emissions released to the atmosphere (without burning) are about 25 times more powerful than CO2 in terms of their warming effect on the atmosphere."
• "Due to rounding, performing the calculations given in the equations below may not return the exact results shown.
• 0.1 mmbtu/1 therm × 14.43 kg C/mmbtu × 44 kg CO2/12 kg C × 1 metric ton/1,000 kg = 0.0053 metric tons CO2/therm
• Carbon dioxide emissions per therm can be converted to carbon dioxide emissions per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) using the average heat content of natural gas in 2018, 10.36 therms/Mcf (EIA 2019).
• 0.0053 metric tons CO2­/therm x 10.36 therms/Mcf = 0.0548 metric tons CO2/Mcf"
•  Barrels of oil consumed: "Due to rounding, performing the calculations given in the equations below may not return the exact results shown."
•  5.80 mmbtu/barrel × 20.31 kg C/mmbtu × 44 kg CO2/12 kg C × 1 metric ton/1,000 kg = 0.43 metric tons CO2/barrel

Research Strategy