It took a little longer than expected, but a massive cylinder that made its way through much of southern and central Saskatchewan in mid-September has arrived at the Boundary Dam Power Station.
The vessel arrived at Boundary Dam on Sept. 22, eight days after it left Biggar. It was supposed to be there five days earlier, but it encountered an early weather delay, and spent a weekend in the Melville area.
The storage tank weighs 90,000 kilograms, stands nearly 18 metres high, and measures 20 metres long and nearly 12 metres in diameter.
It will play a pivotal role in the operations of the integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at Boundary Dam, as it allows SaskPower to contain the main chemical solvent, amine, used in their CCS process.
It replaces another tank that had been at the facility since the carbon capture island was finished in 2013.
“We’re still finding ways to tweak and improve a few pieces, so this is just a better containment measure for the main chemical liquid being used in the process,” said SaskPower spokesperson Jonathan Tremblay.
SaskPower will not be responsible for the cost of purchasing, transporting or installing the structure. The expenses will be covered through a warranty with one of their suppliers.
The cylinder was removed from a flatbed and craned into the upright position this past weekend. A second crane was then scheduled to lift it upright and lower it into position inside the facility. SaskPower hoped the process could be finished Monday morning, but winds proved to be too strong.
Tremblay said it should be relatively easy to install the tank inside the building.
“This is a fairly new building that was created in a certain way that we can access the equipment … from the roof,” said Tremblay. “Same thing with our carbon capture test facility at Shand. It’s fairly easy to bring in a crane from the top, and install things from there.”
The cylinder will be located near the capture island’s towering carbon stripper.
SaskPower is in the midst of a maintenance period at Boundary Dam, when Tremblay said they will address “a few dozen” issues. Most of them involve calibrating and tweaking what is already in place.
The tank was manufactured by various companies, and all the pieces were shipped to Biggar, where AGI Envirotank assembled them for SaskPower.
SaskPower did have to initiate some planned power outages during the move, including some in the southeast, as they had to lift power lines so the vessel could pass underneath.
The journey required coordination with the moving company, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure, SaskPower district staff from 12 areas, line crews, transmission line crews, and their grid control, outage and system security departments, among others.
“This is not the first high-load move we co-ordinate or facilitate with ‘line-lifts’, but it was certainly one of the largest,” said Tremblay. “We took it slow and steady and the equipment made it safely.”
