TransCanada Joins TransAlta and Alstom in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project
27 December 2008
TransCanada Pipelines Limited will join TransAlta Corporation in the development of Project Pioneer, Canada’s first fully-integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant. (Earlier post.)
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| TransAlta and Alstom Canada are developing and implementing a proprietary chilled ammonia process that will help store CO2 underground. Click to enlarge. |
When complete, Project Pioneer will be one of the largest CCS facilities in the world and the first to have an integrated underground storage system. The project will pilot Alstom Canada’s proprietary chilled ammonia process—with an estimated CO2 capture rate of 90%—and will be designed to capture one megatonne (Mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) from an existing coal plant in the Wabamun area west of Edmonton. The CO2 will be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as well as injected into a permanent geological storage site.
In the chilled ammonia capture system, flue gas is cooled to 0-10°C, condensing water and removing residual contaminants. This also reduces flue gas volume, increasing the concentration of CO2. This cooled gas then flows to the absorber, which operates at 0-10°C for high CO2 capture and low ammonia emission.
There, the ammonia reacts with CO2 and water to form ammonia carbonate or bicarbonate. Raising the temperature to 120°C or more and pressure to above 20 bar reverses the reaction, generating a high pressure CO2 stream with low moisture and ammonia concentration. The CO2 can then be processed for sequestration.
TransCanada brings expertise in the design and construction of pipeline infrastructure to Project Pioneer. In addition to TransCanada, TransAlta is seeking industry partners from the oil, natural gas and oilsands sectors who can provide expertise and knowledge across the full spectrum of process plant operations and reservoir knowledge for underground storage and EOR.
TransAlta is submitting detailed funding proposals to both the Alberta government’s CCS initiative and the Federal government’s eco-Energy Technology Initiative. It hopes to receive funding commitments during 2009. That would allow construction of Project Pioneer to begin in early 2010 and operations to commence in 2012. In the interim, preliminary front-end engineering and design (FEED) work is underway.
Project Pioneer is expected to deliver at least 20% of the Government of Alberta’s 2015 target of five Mt in annual CO2 reductions. This CCS technology can be applied to other coal-fired power plants in Alberta and globally. It also has the potential for broader application to capture CO2 emissions generated in other industrial sectors.
Industries with very high CO2 emission (coal fired power plants etc) will get large government subsidies to capture CO2.
Oil producers will get huge subsidies to transport and use the captured CO2 to produce more Oil.
More coal fired power plants will be built to emit more CO2 to produce more oil.
Big-2+ will get huge subsidies to build more gas guzzlers to consume the extra oil produced and produce more GHG.
When will this madness end?
With all the huge handouts going to coal, oil and gas guzzler manufacturers and their banking arm (GMAC?) there will be very little left to promote R & D and finance advanced batteries automated plants, PHEVs, BEVs etc and the production of clean energy.
Let's hope that Japan and Europe will not follow us down that path.
Posted by: HarveyD | 27 December 2008 at 08:19 AM
This is only the first of these CCS systems - and I don't think the economics will fly. EPA will not favor support for coal-fired anything, much less CCS.
What the new EPA MIGHT do is build a demo CC algal oil/alcohol plant. That would limit CO2 capture to production of biofuels while these coal plants transition to NG.
Since it's clear that CO2 is a non-issue compared to SO2 SO4 and particulates - government grants will remain limited.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 27 December 2008 at 04:16 PM
Reel$$ wrote: "This is only the first of these CCS systems - and I don't think the economics will fly. EPA will not favor support for coal-fired anything, much less CCS."
The economics will fly based on the studies TransAlta and Alstom Canada have done. They are confident in their work thus putting their money where their mouths are.
As for the EPA, they are totally out of the loop as the project is slated for Canada not the USA.
Posted by: Mannstein | 27 December 2008 at 04:57 PM