ESTEVAN - SaskPower has released the latest quarterly report for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at the Boundary Dam Power Station.
During the first quarter of 2023 (Jan. 1-Mar. 31), the CCS facility was available 93 per cent of the time, capturing 226,184 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2).
March 31 marked the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year. The total capture of 857,178 tonnes of CO2 between Apr. 1, 2022, and Mar. 31, 2023, represents the strongest-ever fiscal year performance for the facility since operations began in 2014.
When online in the first quarter, the facility had a daily average capture rate of 2,688 tonnes, with a peak one-day capture of 2,873.8 tonnes. This resulted in an emissions intensity of 354 tonnes of CO2 per gigawatt hour (MWh), which is within the current federal carbon tax threshold of 549 tonnes CO2/MWh.
Unit 3 was available 97 per cent of the time for the first quarter of the year. Unit 3 can operate if the CCS facility is down, but CCS needs Unit 3 to be online to function.
SaskPower’s acid plant also had an extremely strong fiscal year, according to the Crown corporation. A total of 5,200 tonnes of sulfuric acid was produced, which is more than double any previous year. In the first quarter of this year, 1,412.3 tonnes were produced.
Since the CCS facility came online in October 2014, a total of 5,227,891 tonnes of CO2 have been kept from entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
