Of all the places in British Columbia they could have picked to set up the first carbon dioxide capturing/sequestering project in the province, Scott Larson and Johnathon Sipos decided the best was a site 50 kilometres southwest of Prince George.
Why there?
It’s all about brucite, a mineral that lies in abundance in a deposits hundreds of meters below the surface. Often found next to nickel, the pourous brucite reacts with carbon dioxide in a chemical reaction that hardens the liquid into crystalized rock that permanently locks in the CO2.
That quick reaction with the mineral will permanently take that injected CO2 out of the equation and on a large scale could potentially negate the climate change threat posed by industrial natural gas emissions.
Sipos and his Victoria-based company Cielo Carbon solutions, the Canadian partner of CarbonQuest, will do carbon capturing, while Larson, chief executive officer of CO2 Lock will take care of the sequestering.
CO2 Lock started three years ago as a subsidiary of FPX Nickel, a Vancouver company which knew through its own operations where to look to find brucite and decided on a 4,084-hectare site just off Blackwater Road near Bobtail Lake Provincial Park.
“We were looking all over the world for the brucite and we looked at 300 sites and where we settled is just outside Prince George,” said Larson. “I has the best geology and at the same time, from a regulatory standpoint and for getting CO2 from Prince George, it really was the best site for us to start.”
So how will they capture it?
Cielo will utilize a process called pressure swing absorption. From a natural gas boiler it will collect out the exhaust which contains water vapour, oxygen, nitrogen and CO2. Under pressure, the water is then forced out and the three gases are forced into a pressure swing vessel. Zeolite pellets are then added to the mix to absorb the carbon dioxide and the nitrogen and oxygen will then be diverted.
Sipos says the process retains 99 per cent of the CO2, which will be collected as a gas in transport trucks. From there it will go to processing facility to be mixed with water before it is shipped to the sequestering site and injected into the ground.
“It takes about eight or nine months to mineralize underground and if you were to do it at the surface it would start within a couple of days,” said Larson, who introduced the project Tuesday at the Future Fuels Forum in Prince George. “We’re drilling down four of five hundred metres, so quite shallow.”
Later this year they will inject through a well the first tanker load of CO2 (a couple hundred tonnes). That will ramp up to 30,000 tonnes in 2026, scaling up to as much as a million tonnes annually for about 20 years over the life of the project.
They’ve yet to determine their CO2 source but it will likely by a pulp mill, refinery, or large-scale welding or food processing operation in the region. While they seek emissions partners they’re hoping their project will capture the public’s imagination when Prince George people see it happening virtually in their own back yard. Last year the city emitted about six million tonnes of CO2.
“What we love is the ability to bring this to a university, an airport, a large residential building, something people can look at see and feel and believe that carbon capture can make green the use of natural gas, combat climate change and support the use of fossil fuels,” said Sipos.
“Currently, the most progressive market on it is the oil and gas sector from compressor engines and they’re burning a lot of natural gas to compress natural gas in the pipelines as they transport. That, for us, is the easiest sector to get into because companies want it, they’re looking to bring down their carbon footprints.
“I know we have a large natural gas pipeline network in BC and they’re burning a lot of natural gas. They’re trying to electrify some compressors, but if it’s 50 kilometres from a hydro line that’s not viable.”
Larson’s background is in satellite communications technology and one of the two satellites that were launched into space started in the basement of his home in Vancouver.
He said there are about 10 or 12 companies around the world that are also developing carbon capture/sequestering sites. The technology behind sequestering has taken 25 years to develop. He and Sipos plan to expand into the U.S., Asia and Europe.
Sipos says the 4,084 hectare Prince George project, dubbed SAM, is an example of how industry can still utilize the province’s abundant sources of natural gas and not feel guilty about emissions because they’ve found a way to decarbonize.
“Canada is a natural resource country and I believe we can capture the CO2 and still support the fossil fuel sector and not have to cut it down,” Sipos said. “In BC, natural gas royalites are our largest Crown royalty, I believe they surpassed forestry.
“When you look at the realities and importance of natural gas, unless we can capture and sequester it, we’ll never make it green and clean.”
Sipos says there’s still plenty of work to do with the federal and provincial government sweetening the pot to incentivize companies like his and Larson’s that see carbon capture as a wave of the future.
Compared to Alberta, where the process is projected to soon become a multi-billion dollar industry, BC is just taking baby steps.
“The province of BC is unfortunately behind in providing incentives,” said Sipos. “Alberta has a much clearer framework under their tier system. It’s very easy to get carbon credits there for installing carbon capture and sequestering it. BC has lagged far behind. Our regulatory framework doesn’t support it, and it’s frustrating.
“Federally, there’s a 50 per cent investment tax credit to apply carbon capture and sequestration onto a natural gas emission source. It’s still a complex process to apply for it and get on and you have to monitor it for four years. It should be much simpler.”
