The ambitious $1.24 billion carbon dioxide capture and sequestration project at Boundary Dam Power Station was brought to the forefront for about 150 oil, gas and mining industry workers and managers attending the annual Â鶹´«Ã½AVeast Environmental and Safety Seminar in Estevan last Wednesday.
Doug Daverne, manager of the Boundary Dam project for SaskPower, provided updated information during a power-point mid-morning session of the day-long seminar that was conducted in the main auditorium at the newly opened Saskatchewan Energy Training Institute in Estevan.
Daverne opened his remarks by reminding the delegates that coal-fired plants still provide as much as 50 per cent of Saskatchewan's electrical power needs and therefore the retrofitting of one of the oldest units at Boundary Dam, No. 3 unit, was designated for the job that will include an entirely new generator and complete refurbishment that will extend the life of the 110 megawatt power source for another 30 years. While doing that it will capture nearly 90 per cent of carbon dioxide flue gases as well as nearly 100 per cent of other noxious gases in the process.
Daverne pointed out that a proposed federal environmental law that is expected to be enacted later this year and applied stringently by 2015 made the refitting necessary.
"Existing units must comply or shut down once they reach 45 years of operation and pretty well all the current units at Boundary Dam are that old," he said.
The oldest units, Nos. 1 and 2 will be shut down soon while the next oldest unit, No. 3 is undergoing the special treatment. Units 4, 5 and 6, that aren't quite as old, await a decision pending the outcome of this pilot project.
Daverne said coal-fired electrical production across Canada will be down to four per cent by 2025, but in Saskatchewan, where 66 per cent of the electrical supply is manufactured using coal, the options became clear, especially since the thermal plants such as those at Boundary Dam, Poplar River (Coronach) and Shand were in excellent condition.
There will be a heat recovery component to the BD3 project and the carbon dioxide that is captured will be sequestered underground and used later for enhanced oil recovery projects in the nearby oilpatch.
A good supply of sulphuric acid, which also has commercial value, will be captured and sold.
A redeeming feature to the entire project is that due to these value-added features, the electrical power that will be emitted by BD3 will be competitively priced and won't cost more than the next lowest supply option which is natural gas.
Daverne said that construction on the carbon capture plant that will be tied into Boundary Dam sometime in 2013 will be ready to swing into operation by the first quarter of 2014.
"We looked at building a brand new plant to do this, but it would be very expensive and we already had the equipment and infrastructure in an existing plant (Boundary Dam) that was still very good," Daverne.
Out of the total cost of the project, Daverne said that roughly speaking, 50 per cent is devoted to the actual capture of CO2 while 30 per cent is being dedicated to plant refurbishment and the other 20 per cent is going to emission controls.
The capital costs are larger than what would be expected for a typical coal-fired unit, but the saving in fuel (coal volumes) will be substantial over the long term, which will balance the costs.
Daverne said that the use of carbon dioxide as an oil recovery agent has been proven long ago. He noted that the nearby Weyburn and Midale oilpatches currently using carbon dioxide from a North Dakota supplier have had their life cycles expanded for the past 10 years, with increased oil volumes. He noted that the Weyburn area field is currently producing about 30,000 barrels of oil per day using carbon dioxide whereas it would be closer to 10,000 bpd without it.
The new BD3 project will allow for more efficient use and recovery of water and the carbon dioxide emitted from the stack will go from about 152,000 units per hour to about 15,000 and total particulate emissions will be reduced from 35 to three.
The commercial building aspect of the project is proceeding on schedule, Daverne noted, and within budget. The amine tower and acid vessels are in place and being closed in and at the peak of the construction period, there will be up to 650 workers on-site with an average being between 300 and 500 workers from now until the commissioning day.
Daverne also mentioned that about 85 per cent of the total material contracts have now been awarded and SaskPower is currently in negotiations with a number of interested businesses that want to partner with them as buyers of the carbon dioxide for more enhanced oil recovery projects.
He also said later during an interview that there will be a lot of knowledge sharing with other countries and business entities as the project gets ready to come on line, especially with a test centre being constructed at the nearby Shand Power Station and through the International Test Centre being managed by the Petroleum Technological Research Centre in Regina. He said the actual sales of intellectual properties will no doubt be a third revenue stream once the project proves itself as a viable environmental option to address the greenhouse gas problem in thermal power plants.
