Carbon Capture and Storage
Two of the projects proponents that have signed Letters Of Intent (LOIs) with the Government of Alberta for funding from the $2B CCS Fund have been announced. $745 million will go to Shell and its partners for the Shell Quest project
. Quest will capture and store 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually beginning in 2015 from Shell’s Scotford upgrader and expansion, near Fort Saskatchewan.
A Letter of Intent (LOI) was also signed with TransAlta Corporation and its partners for Project Pioneer at the Keephills 3 plant west of Edmonton. The project will utilize leading-edge technology to capture CO2 which will be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in nearby conventional oil fields, or stored almost three kilometres underground. The project is expected to capture one million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually beginning in 2015. The Government of Alberta’s investment in this project is $436 million.
The federal government has also invested in both projects. Shell’s Quest project will receive $120 million from the Clean Energy Fund and TransAlta’s Project Pioneer will receive $343 million through the Clean Energy Fund and the federal ecoENERGY technology initiative.
The Government of Alberta is continuing negotiations with other project proponents for the remaining monies in the CCS Fund.
The first round of commercial scale projects is expected to achieve annual carbon dioxide reductions by 2015 equivalent to taking approximately one-million vehicles, or about a third of all registered vehicles in the province, off of the road.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a process that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and stores them in geological formations kilometers deep inside of the earth. Alberta is uniquely suited for CCS as the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin has housed oil and gas for billions of years. Oil and gas reservoirs located kilometres deep underneath the earth’s surface that have been depleted by conventional drilling can be safely used for storing CO2.
Carbon capture and storage technology involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions from industrial sources and transporting them by pipeline to sites where they are injected into deep rock formations for permanent storage. Alberta’s energy industry has been injecting carbon dioxide into depleted oil fields to enhance oil recovery for more than 20 years.
Details on Carbon Capture and Storage are available from the CCS Fact Sheet
or from the animation.
Thanks to the world of animation, the what, where, when, why and how’s of the technology can now experienced.
Related Resources
News releases
- Council to help develop Alberta’s path forward on carbon capture April 24, 2008 (Energy)
- Governments of Canada and Alberta release Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force report
January 31, 2008 (Energy and Natural Resources Canada) - Alberta to cut projected emissions by 50 per cent under new climate change plan January 24, 2008 (Environment)
Reports
- Accelerating Carbon Capture and Storage Implementation in Alberta, Final Report (Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council) - July 24, 2009
- Accelerating Carbon Capture and Storage in Alberta, Interim Report (Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council) - October 22, 2008
- ecoENERGY Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force
- Alberta's Climate Change Strategy
Videos
- Alberta Energy Carbon Capture and Storage - Full Video - Chapter 1 Why CCS?
Chapter 2 How CCS works Chapter 3 CCS around the world- Carbon Capture and Storage
(CanmetEnergy, Natural Resources Canada)
Useful links
- CCS fund development information
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council
- International Recognition for CCS in Alberta
- Overview of Carbon Conversion Capture and Storage (Alberta Research Council)
- Research opportunities - Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI)
- Climate Change and Emissions Management corporation(CCEMC)
- Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change(IPCC)
- Carbon Capture and storage information (International Energy Agency)
- CO2 royalty credit program
- Carbon Capture and Storage
