ESTEVAN - SaskPower’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at the Boundary Dam Power Station has completed its strongest 12-month period to date.
According to information released by SaskPower on July 22, the CCS facility captured 882,273 tonnes of CO2 between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.
Meanwhile, during the second quarter of 2024 (April 1-June 30), the CCS facility was available 88.7 per cent of the time, exceeding the objective of 75 per cent of the time. CCS has surpassed the 75 per cent threshold in each of the past four quarters.
Boundary Dam Unit 3 (BD3), which is connected to CCS, was available 91 per cent of the time, exceeding the target rate of 80 per cent. BD3 can operate when CCS is offline, but CCS needs BD3 to function.
In the second quarter, CCS captured 233,007 tonnes of CO2. While online, the facility had a daily average capture rate of 2,867 tonnes in the second quarter, with a peak one-day capture rate of 2,988 tonnes.
This resulted in an emissions intensity of 300 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour, the lowest level in the past five quarters, and well below the carbon tax threshold of 538 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour.
The second quarter also included the two best months ever for capturing carbon, with 88,999 tonnes in May and 87,996 tonnes in June.
The acid plant at Boundary Dam also continued its strong performance during the quarter, producing a record 1,572 tonnes of sulfuric acid, exceeding the 1,500 tonnes of produced in the first quarter and well above the target of 1,250 tonnes per quarter. SaskPower is able to sell the acid.
In the first six months of the year, the CCS facility has captured 473,158 tonnes of CO2. Since the facility came online in October 2014, it had captured 6,261,775 tonnes of CO2, as of June 30.
