http://crowncapitalecomngnt.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/bellona-visits-canadas-boundary-dam-and.html

1. Bellona Visits Canada’s Boundary
Dam and Quest CCS projects

2. Boundary Dam
In 2011, construction began on a full scale integrated carbon capture and
storage demonstration project at the SaskPower Boundary Dam lignite power
plant, in Saskatchewan. Two years later and the facility is nearing completion.
Boundary Dam is on course to being among the first low carbon fossil power
plants in the world. The facility will capture one million tonnes of CO2 per
annum from a 110 MW pulverised coal unit when it begins operation next
year. The CO2 will becompressed and transported 60km for use in Enhanced
Oil Recovery (EOR).
Construction of the CO2 capture facility is taking place in parallel to an
overhaul of unit three in the coal power plant. The upgrades include boiler
modifications and replacement of the steam turbine. As a result, even with
the parasitic energy loss due to CO2 removal the thermal efficacy of the unit
will decrease.
The current upgrades will provide two services for the power plant: the
removal of both SO2 and CO2, in a two stage process. In the first stage an
optimised amine sorbent washes and binds with SO2 in the flue gas. This amine
is then regenerated in a stripper column, releasing a pure stream of SO2. The
SO2 is further reprocessed on site to produce sulphuric acid, a saleable
commodity valuable in many industrial processes.

3. The CO2 removal process takes place after the flue gas has been sufficiently
cleaned of SO2. The decalcified flue gas passes through a significantly larger
absorber column where a different amine again washes the gas, this time
binding and removing CO2. The CO2 rich amine is regenerated in a large
stripper column, providing a high purity CO2 stream to the compressor room.
The scale of the facility, with the capacity to capture one million tonnes of CO2
per annum, is equivalent to a typical combined cycle gas power plant. In
reality, if the process were employed at a gas power plant, the footprint and
complexity would be smaller still as the SO2 removal and sulphuric acid
conversion process would not be necessary, and lower volumes of CO2 would
be produced.
Saskatchewan has significant coal reserves and a long-established coal
mining industry. However, coal-fired generating units are responsible for 77%
of greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector in Canada. The
Federal Government of Canada therefore introduced a strict CO2 emissions
performance standard of 420 t/GWh for new coal-fired electricity generation
units, and units that have reached the end of their useful life. The legislation
will effectively outlaw unabated lignite and coal electricity generation from
these plants when it comes into force in 2015.

4. SaskPower - an enterprise owned by the provincial state of
Saskatchewan - has worked in close partnership with the
Provincial government and local coal suppliers to make the
Boundary Dam CCS project a reality. Several revenue
streams helped make the business case for the project. The
regulated electricity market in Saskatchewan provided
valuable electricity price stability and predictability, assuring
the plant of baseload dispatch. The Weyburn oil fields
nearby meant that a sales contract for the CO2 produced
has already been concluded: The purchaser - Cenovus
Energy - will assume liability for storage. A supply contract is
nearing agreement for the sulphuric acid the plant will
produce. And finally, Federal Government support in the
form of a Cdn$240 million grant with few strings attached
helped the first movers involved in the project to fill a
funding gap without compromising the commercial value
of their learnings or their intellectual property.

5. Quest
The Quest CCS project is a joint venture between Shell, Chevron, and
Marathon that aims to demonstrate the role of CCS in reducing
industrial CO2 emissions from oil sands production. It has the strong
backing of the Federal Government of Canada and the Province of
Alberta, who will provide up to Cdn$865 million of funding towards the
Cdn$1.4 billion project.
The Quest facility will capture one million tonnes of CO2 per annum
from the hydrogen production unit at Shell’s Scotford Upgrader,
located near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. The upgrading process
adds hydrogen to lower quality bitumen extracted from oil sands to
produce a higher quality ‘synthetic crude’ feedstock for use in the co-
located refinery at the Scotford site. As the hydrogen is produced
from natural gas, significant CO2emissions result. The post combustion
CO2 capture plant receives a high pressure, moderately high
concentration CO2 stream from a hydrogen production facility. As
with Boundary Dam, amine sorbents are used to in the capture
process.

6. One major distinguishing factor of the Quest CCS project lies with the
CO2 storage. Although there is oil production nearby, Quest does not rely
on EOR for supplementary revenue. Instead, CO2 will be transported via a
100km pipeline to a saline formation storage site. This part of the project
includes a near exhaustive Measurement, Monitoring and Verification plan
that will allow for a systematic development and comparison of different
CO2 monitoring technologies and methods. The CO2 injection will
therefore provide the joint venture partners with valuable learnings moving
forward.
The role played by the Province of Alberta has also been key to realizing
Quest. The province has systematically identified and acted to remove
CCS ‘show stoppers’, tabling a number of laws to provide regulatory
predictability for prospective operators. For example, storage in Alberta
was identified early on as a constraint, so the province boldly nationalized
pore space in its Carbon Capture and Storage Statutes Amendment Act,
2010. This gave authorities control over, and responsibility for, all the
potential CO2 storage space in the province.
And Alberta is striving to fine tune its regulatory framework for CCS further
with an 18-month review involving an expert panel. This will shortly result
in a further 73 suggestions for improvement, making Alberta a regulatory
poster child for CCS.

7. Observations
Alberta and Saskatchewan are now world leaders in CCS.
Both the Boundary Dam and Quest projects are almost
complete, being scheduled to come into operation in 2014 and
2015 respectively. They prove again the large-scale viability
and versatility of CO2 capture technologies, and suggest the
necessary degree of regulatory clarity and stakeholder
engagement needed to make CCS deployment a reality
elsewhere in the world.
But this raises the broader question of what has allowed CCS
to succeed in Canada when it faces seemingly insurmountable
hurdles elsewhere. How is Canada different?
The regulated electricity market in Saskatchewan has helped
to reduce the investment risk of the Boundary Dam project.
And public confidence with the oil and gas industry has
certainly facilitated effective stakeholder engagement.

8. But what is most notable is that the broad drive to develop
CCS in Canada stems from its position as a large resource
holder. Put simply, following increasing regulatory pressure to
reduce CO2 emissions, provincial authorities and Industry have
worked together to keep coal and oil sands resources
relevant in the future. This has led to bold action to realize
CCS on both their parts, even though action is not driven by
immediate profit but by the long-term benefits of learning.
The challenge that the EU faces is to find a way to unlock the
same sense of urgency. CCS is more than just a way for
resource-holders to de-risk their assets. It will play an essential
part in making the EU’s vast fossil fuel consumption less
harmful for future generations in the long-term transition to
affordable renewable energy sources and cleaner industrial
processes.