Babcock’s LGE business wins world first contract for ecoCO2® cargo handling system

Babcock’s LGE business, the world leader in liquefied gas solutions, has won a milestone contract from a ship owner in South Korea to deliver its first cutting-edge ecoCO2® cargo handling system for two 22,000m³ liquefied CO2 (LCO2) carriers.  

In an exciting development for the business, the ecoCO2® cargo handling system is the world’s first cargo handling and reliquefaction system for a low-pressure cargo tank design.

The announcement follows Babcock’s recent Approval in Principle (AiP) from Lloyd’s Register (LR) for its ecoCO2® system during Gastech 2023 in Singapore, representing another significant milestone in the company’s world-wide sales of its environmentally focussed liquefied gas cargo handling system technology.

ecoCO2® is designed to enable the efficient transportation of refrigerated liquid CO2 as part of the full Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) value chain. The innovative solution accounts for a range of operating parameters including shipping profiles, loading and discharge terminal parameters, cargo composition and cargo volumes.

The ships, which will be delivered in 2025 and 2026 respectively, are two state of the art 22,000m3 LCO2 carriers – the largest ordered to date – and are widely acknowledged as a significant step towards global decarbonisation where the transportation of large quantities of CO2 by ship is set to grow dramatically over the coming years.

Babcock’s system will deliver commercial and operational benefits throughout the lifetime of the ship and is fully flexible, enabling the carriage of LPG and ammonia as well as CO2.

Neale Campbell, Managing Director for Babcock’s LGE business, said: “This milestone keeps the business at the forefront of developing technology that provides sustainable solutions for our customers. We are delighted to have secured this world-first contract with our innovative ecoCO2® technology solution on the global journey towards decarbonisation.

“This further builds on the existing developments in CO2 shipping for Babcock’s LGE business and marks a crucial step forward during a time when what we do as a business matters more now than ever.”