The carbon capture and storage facility at SaskPower's Boundary Dam Power Station is coming off of its best quarter ever.
According to information released by the Crown corporation Wednesday, the CCS facility captured 240,515 tonnes of carbon dioxide for the first quarter from Jan. 1-March 31. It's the best three-month stretch since the facility opened in October 2014.
Also, thanks to the first-quarter results, the CCS facility has eclipsed the milestone of six million tonnes of CO2 captured since CCS went online. It has kept 6,028,768 tonnes of CO2 from entering the Earth's atmosphere.
During the first quarter of 2024, the CCS facility was available 96.1 per cent of the time, which exceeds the target of 75 per cent, while Unit 3 was available 96.6 per cent, more than the expectation of 80 per cent. Unit 3 can operate without the CCS facility, but CCS cannot function without Unit 3.
In the past five quarters, both Unit 3 and CCS have been online at least 90 per cent of the time for three of them.
While online, the facility had a daily average capture rate of 2,892 tonnes in the first quarter of 2024, with a peak one-day capture of 3,047 tonnes.
Unit 3 had an emissions intensity of 330 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour, below the carbon tax threshold of 549.1 tonnes. The facility has been below the threshold for at least the last five quarters.
The acid plant at CCS was available 74.8 per cent of the time, exceeding the target of 70 per cent. It's the highest number since the first quarter of 2023, when it was online for more than 80 per cent of the time.
The plant produced 1,502 tonnes of sulphuric acid from Jan. 1-March 31, the highest number in the past five quarters. The objective is 1,250 tonnes for a three-month span.
The next edition of the Mercury will have more on this story.
