“A model example of a public-private partner- ship, the project offers a visionary view of the future of low-carbon industrial development,” says the Australia-based Global CCS Institute. “The pipeline can transport up to 14.6 million tonnes of CO2 per year, well beyond the 1.6 million tonnes per year currently captured. There is capacity to tie in many more CO2 emissions sources.” Kevin Jabusch, CEO of ACTL partner Enhance Energy, says that funding from the Alberta gov- ernment ($495 million) and the federal govern- ment ($63 million) helped the companies essen- tially build a CO2 highway before there was enough traffic to fill it.
underground in sandstone rock. In summer 2020, Quest – which received $745 million from the Alberta government and $120 million from Ottawa – marked the milestone of safely capturing and storing more than five million tonnes of CO2.
portation. In Alberta, the project is expected to generate up to 5,000 jobs during construction and hundreds more over decades of operations. Lowering the cost of carbon capture A substantial portion of the cost of CCUS – up to 75 per cent, according to ATB – is the process of CO2 capture. In March, Suncor Energy took part in raising the largest single investment into point source carbon capture technology to date. The oil sands leader took part in raising US$25 million for Vancouver-based Svante Inc., increas- ing the total raised in its Series D funding round to US$100 million. Svante will use the financing to accelerate commercialization of a technology it says cuts the cost of carbon capture by half. “The entire industry is focused on how we move forward and what are the clean technologies we need,” Suncor CEO Mark Little said on a March webinar hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto. “Any time there is a real problem, technology has always been our solution. The innovation that comes out of our country is great, so I remain very optimistic.”
(CO2 pipeline at the Quest CCUS project. Photo courtesy of Canadian Energy Centre & Shell Canada) In a new application for CCUS in Canada, the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line’s Enhance Energy is now working on a “blue” methanol project with partner Nauticol Energy. The companies recently reached an agreement to add one million tonnes per year of carbon capture and sequestration to a new methanol plant to be built near Grande Prairie. The low-car- bon methanol produced will be distributed from terminals in Singapore for use in marine trans-
thing that was not only commercial but good for the world, and good for our kids.” Blue hydrogen in action One of the reasons for ATB’s optimistic forecast for CCUS investment is the role the technolo- gy is expected to play in emerging markets for hydrogen. In terms of emissions, when hydrogen is produced from natural gas, it is considered “grey.” When carbon capture and storage is added, it is considered “blue.” “Green” hydrogen is produced from renewable energy sources. In Canada, the equivalent emissions of more than 1.25million cars have already been kept out of the atmosphere thanks to a blue hydrogen project. The $1.35-billion Quest facility, part of Canadian Natural Resources’ Athabasca Oil Sands Project, captures CO2 from processing that generates hydrogen from natural gas. The hydrogen is used to treat oil sands produc- tion, and the captured CO2 is transported by pipeline for permanent storage two kilometres
(Kevin Jabusch, CEO of Enhance Energy - Courtesy of Canadian Energy Centre) “It’s there, it’s ready for growth, and now that the world is coming around to the fact that we’re going to have to capture CO2 to reach our goals, we can take advantage of that investment. We’re just scratching the surface of what can be done here,” says Jabusch, a long-term oil and gas worker who saw the potential in carbon mitiga- tion. “When I joined this effort six years ago, I just saw it as an opportunity to take what I knew and apply it in a bit of a different way and do some-
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APRIL 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • APRIL 2021
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