Maersk Drilling has entered an agreement to invest USD 1m in the California-based company Clean Energy Systems to help develop a new technology called Carbon-Negative Energy.
The concept builds on proven technology originally developed for the aerospace industry, which is now being deployed in a process that is expected to result in net-negative carbon emissions. For Maersk Drilling, this is one of several opportunities being pursued in order to help the company’s customers move towards carbon-neutral drilling.
“By investing in Clean Energy Systems’ concept, we are helping to bring alive a new technology which can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. We believe the world needs a broad portfolio of technologies and solutions to meet the challenge posed by climate change, and by engaging in this project, we support the development of carbon capture and storage in a way that could allow us to progress towards carbon-neutral drilling,” says COO Morten Kelstrup of Maersk Drilling.
The Carbon-Negative Energy concept is based on using biomass waste as fuel to produce syngas, from which renewable natural gas and hydrogen is separated for sale. The resulting hydrogen-depleted syngas will be used to produce electricity with full capture of associated CO2 emissions. By using fuel that consumes CO2 over its lifetime, combined with safe and permanent CO2 storage, the process results in net-negative emissions, effectively removing CO2 from the atmosphere.