ESTEVAN — The carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at SaskPower's Boundary Dam Power Station is back online after a scheduled and lengthy outage.
According to the quarterly update for the facility, the CCS facility at Boundary Dam was available 11.78 per cent of the time, capturing 25,443 tonnes of CO2 during the second quarter from April 1 to June 30. While online, the facility had a daily average capture rate of 2,346 tonnes, with a peak one-day capture of 2,514 tonnes.
SaskPower says this resulted in an emissions intensity of 471 tonnes of carbon dioxide per gigawatt hour, which was still below the carbon tax threshold of 549 tonnes per gigawatt hour.
Also, Unit 3 at Boundary Dam was available for 12.1 per cent of the time and the acid plant was not available during the second quarter.
The planned major overhaul of Unit 3 and CCS began April 11 and continued for the remainder of the quarter. This included work such as:
- Packing changes in the sulfur dioxide (SO2 and CO2 absorber towers and in the SO2 stripper tower;
- The CO2 compressor motor was refurbished, and the CO2 compressor itself was disassembled, inspected and reassembled;
- Refurbishment of the cooling tower;
- Numerous heat exchanger cleans; and
- Other general maintenance and repair activities.
SaskPower also undertook an in-depth inspection of the CO2 pipeline for the first time since commissioning in 2014.
The CCS facility and BD3 have returned to service and resumed carbon capture on July 8.
Since it came online in October 2014, the CCS facility has captured 6,858,530 tonnes of CO2, including 251,802 so far this year. The facility was coming off its best year yet in 2024, when it captured 848,388 tonnes.
