Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
5/8/2015
Following successful pilot testing at the Energy & Environmental Research Center in North Dakota, CO2 Solutions is accelerating a demonstrating project of its enzyme-based carbon capture technology. The project was initially slated to run for 2,500 hours at Husky Energy’s Pikes Peak South, Saskatchewan, heavy oil site following installation this month. Now, though, the project will include 1,000 hours of operation at 10 tonnes per day at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield near Montreal, where the unit was constructed. The unit will then be moved to the Husky facility and will run there over the course of the summer. Operation at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield is expected to begin May 11.
Initial test results from the EERC pilot found that the company’s technology could run on an estimated $39 per tonne of CO2 based on 90 percent capture rate, including CO2 compression to 2250 psi. Further, the testing found an approximately ten-time reduction in the parasitic load on the power plant, stable performance of the enzyme with no need for replacement, no toxic waste generation and the potential for significantly reduced power plant retrofit costs.
In a release this week, CO2 Solutions CEP Evan Price said, “The EERC programme has conclusively validated our claims of having developed the low-cost technology for capture, sequestration and commercial reuse of CO2. Re-scoping our 10 tpd demonstration project allows us to engage much quicker on a commercial basis with interested parties that are both emitters and users of CO2, with the objective of bringing forward revenue generating opportunities.”
