The Port of Vigo is pioneering a new role for ports in maritime decarbonisation: not passive bystanders to onboard emissions, but the infrastructure that closes the CO2 loop. CAPCO2 is an onboard capture system whose defining innovation lies ashore. Vessels capture CO2 during operation, but the energy-intensive regeneration of the MEA solvent takes place in port, using industrial residual heat. This shifts the regeneration burden onto port infrastructure, so gross capture equals net capture from the shipowner’s regulatory perspective.
In October 2025, CAPCO2 completed a certified pilot at the Port of Vigo, achieving 42 kg/h of net capture, with an Approval in Principle issued by Bureau Veritas, within the Spanish PERTE Naval framework. CAPCO2 can be retrofitted onto existing vessels and, equally, designed in natively as a catch-ready solution in newbuilds.
The objective is to position the Port of Vigo as the first node of a port-based CO2 logistics layer, operating along two complementary routes. The first, distinctive to CAPCO2, is solvent logistics: the CO2-rich solvent is offloaded in port, regenerated ashore with industrial residual heat, and bunkered back to the vessel. CO2 is released and captured on land, so the shipowner achieves certified net capture without depending on a mature liquefied-CO2 chain. The second is the conventional liquefied-CO2 route: reception, storage and evacuation to a permanent sink. By enabling the solvent route first, the Port of Vigo can act today, addressing the genuine bottleneck in onboard capture, which lies ashore rather than aboard ship.
The approach is replicable across European ports, aligns with the emerging IMO direction on onboard capture, and turns regulatory pressure on shipowners into value anchored in the port. CAPCO2 is the embryo of a larger ambition: a Galician node within the broader CO2 corridor, showing that net-zero shipping can be built from the port outward.