Techno‑economic assessment of integrated CO2 liquefaction and waste energy recovery using low‑GWP zeotropic mixtures for maritime applications

Journal article, 2026

The increasing regulatory pressure on the maritime sector to decarbonize, driven in part by market‑based mechanisms at the European level, is accelerating the development of onboard carbon management and energy‑efficiency solutions. In this context, this study evaluates an integrated architecture that combines a CO2 liquefaction system with organic Rankine cycles. The system captures 66% of the total CO2 emitted by ship engines and is capable of recovering up to 2600.8 kW of energy from onboard hot and cold sources. To identify the most suitable working fluids, an extensive screening of 208 low‑GWP zeotropic mixtures is conducted, assessing their thermophysical behavior and energy recovery performance. A detailed thermo‑economic assessment is undertaken, including the calculation of CO2‑equivalent savings, GHG abatement cost, and payback periods. To account for fuel price variability, probabilistic modelling based on Monte Carlo sampling is applied to estimate the distribution of discounted payback outcomes. The results demonstrate that Novec 649‑based zeotropic mixtures combined with the proposed architecture reduce fuel consumption and enhance onboard CO2 management while remaining safe and economically viable across a wide range of operating scenarios.