SaskPower’s carbon capture test facility at the Shand Power Station is currently sitting vacant, but according to Jonathan Tremblay, the media relations and issues management spokesperson for the Crown corporation, that status could change soon.
Tremblay said there is interest in the facility, and SaskPower is in the midst of negotiations.
“Not only is it one of the biggest test facilities on Earth of its kind, but also it’s one of the only ones that is actually attached to a coal station, because it’s attached to the Shand Power Station,” said Tremblay.
“The flue gas … that they do get is from a working coal plant instead of a simulated environment.”
SaskPower has been talking to less than a dozen potential tenants, he said, and they are actively negotiating with two companies. The test facility is built to accommodate one tenant at a time, because the system needs to be working for one tenant for controls and scientific testing.
Tremblay is optimistic a new tenant could be in the test facility within “weeks or months.” Once SaskPower has a new agreement, it won’t take long for a new tenant to begin testing their carbon capture technologies.
“The carbon capture test facility is set up in very much a plug and play model, so whatever they want to test, whether it’s a chemical solvent or a piece of equipment, we can simply plug it in there and they can get to work,” said Tremblay.
Negotiations for the new tenant started when Mitsubishi-Hitachi wrapped up its work at the test facility.
Mitsubishi-Hitachi was the first tenants of the test facility, as part of the arrangement that saw the Japanese company supply technology for the facility. The company worked at the facility from 2015 to 2017.
Tremblay noted Mitsubishi-Hitachi was supposed to be at the test facility until the end of last year, but the lease was extended by three months so the company could continue its research. The lease ended in March.
“They were very happy with their experience,” said Tremblay. “They were able to get done what they wanted to do, and in the end, they actually decided to leave the equipment they had paid to have installed there, so that’s something we can reuse as well.”
The advancements that Hitachi made while at the test facility are proprietary, so Tremblay couldn’t divulge any breakthroughs or advancements that might have occurred.
“They took their findings back to Japan, and now they will essentially make that available worldwide as a new technology,” said Tremblay. “We can’t wait to see what that is, and see if we could use that for our processes.”
