Large Scale CCS Demonstration Projects

Shell Canada Energy Quest Project

Shell Canada Energy, on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a joint venture among Shell Canada, Chevron Canada Limited and Marathon Oil Sands L.P., is advancing Quest, a fully integrated CCS project, meaning it would capture, transport, inject and store CO₂. Over one million tonnes of CO₂ per year would be captured from the Scotford upgrader, transported by pipeline to an injection location northeast of the Scotford Complex and stored safely and permanently more than two kilometres underground under thick layers of impermeable rocks. The CO₂ could also be made available for use in enhanced oil recovery projects.

The Government of Canada will be providing funding of $120 million for this project. The Government of Alberta is investing $745 million through its CCS Fund.

TransAlta Project Pioneer

Project Pioneer involves the development of a large-scale carbon capture and storage system attached to TransAlta’s Keephills 3 coal-fired power plant located near Edmonton.  It is estimated that up to one million tonnes of CO₂ emissions will be captured and stored annually in wells 2.8 km deep below the surface near the plant. This would be one of the world’s first large-scale CCS facilities and will perform several technological functions. It would integrate leading-edge, post-combustion, chilled ammonia capture technology with a coal-fired power plant to capture CO₂. The CO₂ would then be transported for use in enhanced oil recovery and to a permanent geological storage site, with the goal of demonstrating safe, secure, large-scale permanent storage in saline aquifers.

The Government of Canada will invest $342.8 million in the project. Funding will be made available through the Clean Energy Fund ($315.8 million), and through the ecoENERGY Technology Initiative ($27 million). The Government of Alberta is investing $436 million through its CCS Fund.

Enhance Energy – Alberta Carbon Trunk Line Carbon Capture and Storage Project

The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line project will include a fully integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) system incorporating gasification, capture of CO₂ emissions, transportation, storage and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Enhance Energy will partner with North West Upgrading for the project and provide CO₂ gathering and distribution infrastructure for the cost-effective management of CO₂ emissions from facilities in Alberta’s Industrial Heartland and throughout central Alberta. The captured CO₂ from these sites will be transported via a 240-km pipeline to mature oil reservoirs in central and southern Alberta, where it will be injected for enhanced oil recovery purposes.

The Government of Canada will be funding about $30 million for the project through the Clean Energy Fund, in addition to $33 million from the ecoENERGY Technology Initiative.