Antwerp-based family company Victrol has won the Sustainable Port Award 2023. The company made it from the other finalists with its CCUS Shipping project for transporting captured and liquefied CO2 by barge.
The award is a biennial initiative of Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Alfaport-Voka, Maatschappij Linkerscheldeoever and Apzi-Voka. Victrol, which transports chemicals, oil and gas by water and bunkers fuels, made it into the finals as a family-owned company from major players such as International Car Operators, Boluda Towage and TotalEnergies.
The jury unanimously chose Victrol’s CCUS Shipping project for transporting CO2. CCUS stands for Carbon Capture, Utilisation & Storage. The decisive factors were the degree of innovation, cooperation and the progressive vision of the future associated with the project. The aim of the project is to transport captured and liquefied CO2 from industrial companies to storage sites in international seaports. To this end, Victrol is developing new vessels to deploy on inland waterways. The liquid CO2 then goes to ocean-going vessels or international pipelines for permanent storage in empty gas fields, for example. In the longer term, it can be reused as a circular building block for chemical products, such as in the production of methanol.
Step into the unknown
“We are very proud as a family business to receive this award. We are a very innovative family that believes in transporting all types of products. With the various plans around CO2 emissions, we started thinking about the future and see inland shipping as an important part in CO2 capture and transport. Therefore, we decided to take a big step into the unknown and make a serious investment. Frederik Selhorst has been given the position of business development manager for this and together with my brother Peter, he is responsible for this project. This award is a crowning achievement for our work,” says Miranda Maes, general manager of Victrol.
Design ship quasi complete
“We are happy with the recognition at this stage, especially since the project is not yet under construction. This is a recognition of our efforts to create a market to help make the industry climate neutral. This will be a gamechanger for the industry. We do need to realise this project in partnership with other companies. This is not a standalone story. We have previously partnered with Danish Dan-Unity CO2 and need to create more partnerships,” Selhorst stresses.
We are quite far along but the chain is needed to get started
The design of the ship is quasi complete. “The whole chain has to decide to join forces to do this. We are quite far but the chain is needed to start,” Selhorst says.
“We are ready to build the ship. That will take about 28 months. With this story, we hope to continue final tender discussions with customers. We are looking for customers to get the whole thing up and running. A lot of small companies are working hard to provide a solution,” Maes adds.
Also methanol and ammonia
Besides transporting CO2, Victrol has other projects in its sights. “Whatever the molecule of the future will be, we are also looking at transporting methanol, ammonia and so on. In that too, we want to be the carrier of the future. For this, we are in talks with several partners to further diversify our portfolio,” Selhorst says.
Fossil fuels
While the company is focusing on innovative projects for the future, it remains realistic to believe that fossil fuels will be part of our society for a long time to come. “The phase-out takes a long time. Perhaps the energy mix will evolve towards bio- and synthetic fuels, but the use of fossil fuels will not completely disappear tomorrow. That is why we are also continuing to renew our existing ships. We already have Stage V engines and are working on projects around diesel-electric ships, methanol-fuelled ships and with CO2 capture on board,” Maes explains.
“As an SME, we are now putting a lot of time and money into projects to help decarbonise the industry,” Selhorst concludes.
