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CCJ27a_Layout 1 21/04/2012 16:08 Page 1 CCS in Saskatchewan Cansolv: capturing attention at SaskPower Boundary Dam University of Regina: pioneering research CO2 storage safe at May / June 2012 Issue 27 Weyburn site CO2 storage combined with geothermal energy UK CCS demonstration competition: a new start CO2 Capture Project CO2 storage impurities study NEL on CO2 flow measurement and monitoring Global CCS Institute submissions to UNFCCC CCJ27a_Layout 1 21/04/2012 16:08 Page 2 CCJ27a_Layout 1 21/04/2012 16:09 Page 1 Contents Leaders Cansolv: capturing attention at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam power station Cansolv Technologies is providing the CO2 capture technology for SaskPower’s Boundary Dam project, which will begin capturing CO2 in late 2013 2 University of Regina: pioneering research The International Test Center for CO2 Capture may have found the ‘magic bullet’ - a process that virtually eliminates the energy penalty for post-combustion capture 5 May/June 2012 Issue 27 Storage at Weyburn safe says study Third-party research has confirmed that the carbon dioxide Cenovus Energy uses for enhanced oil recovery at its Weyburn operation is not linked to CO2 concentrations in the Carbon Capture Journal soil at a nearby property 7 2nd Floor, 8 Baltic Street East, London EC1Y 0UP www.carboncapturejournal.com Tel +44 (0)207 017 3405 Fax +44 (0)207 251 9179 Legal Column At long last the process of deciding which of GB’s incipient CCS demonstration projects will Editor receive state support has recommenced in earnest. The new process contrasts sharply with Keith Forward its recently departed predecessor and offers much cause for optimism, says Calum Hughes [email protected] 8 Publisher Karl Jeffery Projects and policy [email protected] UK CCS competition: a new beginning Subscriptions The UK has set out its new long term CCS plans following on from the cancelled CCS [email protected] demonstration project competition 10 Advertising and Sponsorship Global CCS Institute submissions to UNFCCC John Finder The Global CCS Institute is an accredited observer to the United Nations Framework Tel +44 (0)207 017 3413 Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and recently made two submissions to the [email protected] UNFCCC Secretariat on CCS related matters 12 Carbon Capture Journal is your one stop Global CCS Institute and China sign cooperation agreement information source for new technical The Global CCS Institute and China's Department of Climate Change, National developments, opinion, regulatory and Development and Reform Commission have signed a Memorandum of Understanding research activity with carbon capture, regarding cooperation on CCS transport and storage. 13 Carbon Capture Journal is delivered on print Capture and pdf version to a total of 6000 people, all of whom have requested to receive it, SaskPower & Hitachi to build CCS test facility including employees of power companies, SaskPower and Hitachi Ltd are partnering to construct a $60 million carbon capture test oil and gas companies, government, facility at SaskPower’s Shand Power Station in southeastern Saskatchewan 15 engineering companies, consultants, educators, students, and suppliers. Transport and storage Subscriptions: £250 a year for 6 issues. To CO2 storage with geothermal energy production subscribe, please contact Karl Jeffery on HMC’s proprietary carbon dioxide plume geothermal technology has the potential to [email protected] enhance the feasibility and economic viability of carbon capture and geologic storage Alternatively you can subscribe online at by offsetting or eliminating the cost of CCS through generation of renewable www.d-e-j.com/store geothermal electricity 16 CO2 Capture Project CO2 impurities report The CCP has completed Phase One of a study into the impact of impurities in CO2 storage, identifying possible cost savings from using less pure streams of CO2 18 Front cover: The Cansolv CO2 & SO2 capture plant at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam power CCS measurement challenges plant, currently under construction, will start One of the remaining challenges to be overcome in establishing CCS as a practical to capture CO2 by the end of 2013 operational process is effective measurement and monitoring of the CO2 stream. By John Morgan, Carbon Capture & Storage Business Manager, and Philip Cherukara, Consultant for Sustainable Energy, NEL 20 CIUDEN's PISCO2 project commences The research team working at the Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (CIUDEN) has extracted 50 cubic metres of upper layer soil from the site of the future CO2 storage pilot plant in Spain 23 Status of CCS project database The status of 78 large-scale integrated projects data courtesy of the Global CCS Institute 24 Carbon capture journal (Print) ISSN 1757-1995 May - June 2012 - carbon capture journal 1 Carbon capture journal (Online) ISSN 1757-2509 CCJ27a_Layout 1 21/04/2012 16:09 Page 2 Leaders Cansolv: capturing attention at Boundary Dam Cansolv Technologies Inc. (CTI) is providing the CO2 capture technology for SaskPower’s Boundary Dam project, which will begin capturing CO2 in late 2013. Author: Devin Shaw As a selected technology provider on the Boundary Dam project, CTI is eager to see the project advance to fruition and start to capture CO2 in late 2013. This will be the first commercial scale application of the CANSOLV CO2 capture technology, which goes without saying as it will be the first commercial scale post-combustion Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) project of its kind in the world. As shown by its on- schedule construction status, SaskPower is well on its way to recognizing this exciting milestone. Just as SaskPower are pioneers in CCS, CTI are also pioneers – in the world of re- generable fluegas scrubbing. CTI were the first to apply and commercialize amines in the application of post-combustion, oxida- tive fluegas scrubbing. Amines, such as MEA or DMEA, have been used for regen- erable scrubbing in the Oil & Gas world for many decades. It is common practice to use such an amine to remove pollutants such as Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) and/or Carbon Figure 1 - Cansolv CO2 capture plant (©SaskPower 2006) Dioxide (CO2) from natural gas streams or refinery gas streams to purify them and ren- der them ready for sale. This is an application performed on the gaged CTI to run a short pilot campaign at ment as their technology of choice for their raw gas itself – before any combustion or use their Poplar River power station (see Figure Integrated Carbon Capture & Sequestration thereof and therefore at high concentrations 1 below). The CANSOLV technology had (ICCS) project at Boundary Dam (Unit #3). and pressures. And also, importantly, since intrigued SaskPower enough that they want- Progression of the on-going plant construc- the gas has not yet been combusted: without ed to learn more about it. The campaign saw tion is shown in Figure 3 to follow. the presence of oxygen. CTI developed the CTI send a mobile ‘multi-pollutant capture concept of a regenerable amine process and plant’ to the SaskPower site to treat a small The Technology applied it in a post-combustion environment slipstream of the coal-fired power plant flue- Figure 2 opposite shows the flowsheet (sim- – which implies low-pressure gas (close to gas for SO2 & CO2 removal. plified) of the SaskPower integrated atmospheric pressures) and of course con- As the only provider of amine based re- SO2/CO2 Capture system in construction taining the presence of oxygen. As redun- generable SO2 and CO2 scrubbing technolo- above. dant as it may sound, oxygen is of course a gies, CTI is uniquely positioned to offer an fantastic “oxidizer” of many things; amines integrated system that uses the same tech- Brief Cansolv Technology Description are no exception. nology to sequentially scrub SO2 and CO2 Fluegas is first sent to the SO2 absorber and It was the careful consideration of how in one system. Since the two processes are then onto the CO2 absorber before being re- to handle and manage the use of an amine in the same (the flowsheets are nearly identi- turned to the stack with zero SO2 and only this type of environment where CTI excelled cal), CANSOLV can also take advantage of 10% of the CO2 remaining. The fluegas is and eventually succeeded in commercializ- some internal synergies to recover energy first quenched and sub-cooled in a Prescrub- ing the use of this unique technology. Anoth- and thus lower the overall energy demand. ber section, which is located in the SO2 ab- er unique element, pioneered by CTI, was It is no secret that a significant down- sorber. SO2 and CO2 are absorbed from the the use of amines in scrubbing sulfur diox- fall of these types of CO2 capture plants is gas by contact with the Cansolv solvents ide (SO2) instead of H2S or CO2 – which is the parasitic consumption of low pressure through sections of structured mass transfer at the heart of the patents and the key differ- steam. When applied at a power station, packing in the absorption towers. Lean cool entiator of the technology; but this is the top- where steam translates to electricity to the amine is fed to the top of each Absorber ic of another article. grid, this is a critical parameter in selecting Tower. SaskPower and CTI have been working a technology for a CCS project. Ultimately In each tower, as the absorbents flow together since 2006, when SaskPower en- SaskPower selected this integrated arrange- down the column counter current to the feed 2 carbon capture journal - May - June 2012 CCJ27a_Layout 1 21/04/2012 16:11 Page 3 Leaders Figure 2 - Flowsheet of the SaskPower integrated SO2/CO2 Capture system gas, the pollutant is absorbed into the amine. (vapor) and product-saturated condensate are efit gained by running the capture plant cool- The rich amine collects in the sump of the separated in the Stripper Overhead Accumu- er.