Integrated CCS Project at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station

Publication Overview

On October 2, 2014, the first-ever, commercial–scale, coal-fired power plant incorporating amine solvent absorption carbon capture began operation near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. This was a global landmark event. Although carbon capture technologies had been pilot tested prior to this, a commercial– scale power plant now exists that has demonstrated that a number of high-risk technology and business issues have been overcome. This report summarizes the experience and learnings of SaskPower in a way that will hopefully provide insight to other clean-coal initiatives

Publication Summary

FOR SASKPOWER, owner and operator of the retrofitted Boundary Dam Power Unit 3 (BD3) that now incorporates carbon capture and storage (CCS), this event was the culmination of decades of work to continue operating coal-fired power-generating stations, while at the same time mitigating the climate change impact of associated air emissions. The CO₂ captured at BD3 is geologically stored at two locations: in an oil reservoir approximately 1.4 kilometres deep at Cenovus’ CO₂–EOR operation near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and in a deep saline aquifer approximately 3.2 kilometres deep at the SaskPower Carbon Storage and Research Centre, located near the Boundary Dam Power Station. The latter geological storage site is the subject of the measurement, monitoring and verification (MMV) activities of the Aquistore Project that is managed by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan.