Major carbon capture project gets go-ahead in Sask

A major project for the capture and sequestration of CO2 from a coal-fired power plant has been approved by the government of Saskatchewan. The Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Project at Estevan, Saskatchewan will fully integrate and retrofit an aging lignite coal-fired unit with carbon capture and an enhanced oil recovery operation. CO2 captured at Boundary Dam will be used by the petroleum industry to extract oil from mature fields.

"This project will forge an environmentally sustainable path for the production of coal-fired electricity in Saskatchewan," said Rob Norris, the minister responsible for energy. "By proceeding with the carbon capture project at Boundary Dam, while continuing to add wind power and investigating other renewable energy options such as biomass, SaskPower is helping to build a greener future for Saskatchewan."

The carbon-capture system could reduce carbon emissions at Boundary Dam by one million tonnes per year, equivalent to the annual emissions of 200,000 vehicles or roughly a quarter of the vehicles in the province. One million tonnes represents ninety per cent of the CO2 emitted through the unit that could be captured through the Cansolv integrated system, and may be used for enhanced oil recovery from nearby oilfields.

SaskPower and Shell subsidiary Cansolv Technologies signed an agreement last March to license a CANSOLV Integrated Carbon and Sulphur Capture System for the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Sequestration Demonstration Project. Cansolv will supply the carbon capture process. Hitachi will supply a state-of-the-art steam turbine, the first in the world designed to fully integrate a coal-fired power plant with carbon capture technology.

The project will be one of the largest construction projects in the province's history. Construction will begin immediately, with operations commencing in 2014. The new generating unit at Boundary Dam will have the capacity to generate 110 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

In addition to capturing CO2 for enhanced oil recovery operations, the Boundary Dam project will also capture sulfur dioxide (SO2) to be used in the production of sulphuric acid.

Boundary Dam Power Station is SaskPower's largest generating facility, with six units and a combined generating capacity of 824 MW. The company's three coal-fired power plants account for approximately 50 per cent of its generating capacity of 3,513 MW. SaskPower has a total available generating capacity of 3,982 when the production of independent power producers is taken into account.