TransCanada joins TransAlta carbon capture project
By Dave CooperDecember 18, 2008
EDMONTON — TransAlta Corp., owners of major coal-fired power plants west of Edmonton, said Thursday that TransCanada Pipelines would join its Project Pioneer, a proposal to become Canada’s first fully integrated carbon capture and storage facility.
When complete, the project would capture one megatonne of carbon dioxide from a Keephills or Sundance unit using a chilled ammonia system from Alstom Canada, and pipe the CO2 to be injected deep underground, either for enhanced oil recovery or into a saline aquifer.
TransCanada is also seeking other industry partners from the oil, natural gas and oilsands sectors. Both TransAlta and TransCanada have been selected for further review and may qualify for funding under Alberta’s $2 billion carbon capture and storage development fund, which aims to promote projects that will remove five megatonnes a year of CO2 from emissions.
Edmonton’s city-owned Epcor Utilities, which has a power plant at nearby Genesee, is considering a similar project and is also among the 20 projects under review.
