The carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station had one of its best months yet in January.
The facility was online for the entire month, and the facility captured 81,008 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) – approximately 81 per cent of its maximum capacity.
January marked just the third time in the last 13 months that the CCS facility has been online for 100 per cent of the month.
By comparison, it was online for 61 per cent of the time in 2017.
Also, the amount of CO2 captured was not far off the one-month record for tonnes of CO2 captured, which was set in October 2017 when 85,000 tonnes were captured.
An average of 43,720 tonnes of CO2 were captured each month at Boundary Dam last year.
The one-day peak for CO2 captured was 2,810 tonnes, which surpassed the 12-month average of 1,713 tonnes for the monthly peak.
More than 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 have been captured since the facility started up in 2014.
The facility also averaged more than 120 megawatts of power produced last month, which was better than the 2017 average of 103 megawatts.
No maintenance outages were required, but a temporary decrease in production at the power station briefly lowered the capture rate for the CCS plant.
The CCS plant continued to benefit from upgrades installed this summer. The upgrades allow for minor maintenance issues to be addressed without shutting down the process.
While the upgrades have improved the reliability of the plant, efforts to improve the amine chemistry continue. These efforts include programs at the carbon capture test facility at the Shand Power Station that could increase efficiency and reduce future costs for the CCS process.
