Ottawa will pump as much as $140 million into eight demonstration projects in Western Canada which aim to capture and store carbon dioxide produced by power plants and the fertilizer and petroleum industries.
Projects in the Edmonton region include Epcor and Enbridge's Genesee project and TransAlta's Pioneer project, both in the Lake Wabamun area and both aimed at removing carbon dioxide from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants and injecting it into deep saline aquifers.
In the Fort Saskatchewan area, more support will go to the Heartland Area Redwater Project (HARP), a study by the Alberta Research Council and other groups that is being implemented by ARC Resources to store CO2 and enhance Redwater oil recovery.
As well, a CO2 pipeline project being designed by Enhance Energy to run from the Agrium fertilizer plant and upgrader alley to central Alberta for enhanced oil recovery has won support.
Ian Potter, vice-president for energy at the research council, said the first phase of the $50-million HARP is almost complete.
"We hope at the end of the day that the standard one-third formula, from the feds, province and industry will be followed. I know ARC Resources, which is doing all the fieldwork, have invested heavily in this project."
Ottawa will begin negotiations with the eight projects to determine how much will be contributed, but the range will be $3 million to $30 million per project, totalling no more than $140 million.
"Canada's tremendous reserves of energy will remain an important source of economic strength for a long time to come," said Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt. "The major challenge we face today comes from identifying and implementing cleaner ways to produce and consume that energy.
"Our government's support for the development of these innovative and promising technologies is just one of a number of important steps we're taking toward building a greener and more sustainable energy economy."
HARP is furthest along of the Alberta projects, with Phase 2 beginning this summer involving more wells drilled into the 1,000-metre-deep formation and continuing study.
Phase 3, the injection and monitoring of the CO2, will follow with the project completed by 2012-13. After that, commercial-scale injection of several thousand tonnes a day could begin.
The research council has thoroughly studied the Redwater reef, and concluded it could safely store more than a billion tonnes of CO2 in a deep saline portion of the reef that lies under several caprock layers, ensuring the gas would be completely contained.
Epcor's project involves building a new 150-megawatt coal-fired plant that would incorporate an amine scrubbing process to collect CO2 from the flue-gas. It will be transported by Enbridge to a deep saline formation. TransAlta is using different technology on an existing plant to try to achieve the same goal.
Carbon projects get $140M
Ottawa opens wallet to Western Canada to develop capture, storage technology
Don Lowry, Epcor's president, said "this funding will assist us in demonstrating that we can capture and store emissions from industrial-scale coal-fired electricity plants that use existing technology."
Enbridge president Patrick Daniel said carbon capture and storage (CCS) "has the potential to transform the environmental footprint of our energy economy and may be one of the best ways for Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
The Alberta companies are also among those which made the cut earlier this year for further review under the province's $2-billion CCS funding program. Four or five projects from a list of 20 could soon receive major support. Other approved projects include a Fort Nelson, B.C., gas-processing plant, Husky's CO2-injection research at Lloydminster, Sask., and a gasification facility in Belle Plaine, Sask.
