Estevan, SK: 1959-78 824mw SaskPower Boundary Dam and Carbon Capture & Storage

(Satellite)

Greg Mallory posted
Sask (Saskatchewan) Power Boundary Dam Station, first NA carbon capture project. I was contracted and completed the writing of the simulator lesson plans that included the new carbon capture facility (shown right)

The units strike me as rather small in terms of megawatts for the second half of the 20th Century.

SaskPower

Power capacity: 672 megawatts (MW), but the maximum name plate capacity was 824mw

- In 1959, Unit #1 (62 MW) and Unit #2 (61 MW) produced a total of 123 MW.

- The next 2 units were added in 1970. They had a combined capacity of 278 MW.

- Unit #5 was added in 1973 and created 139 MW.

- The final unit, was added in 1978, generating 284 MW of power.

- To clean the emissions from the smokestacks, we installed a dry scrubber on all units. It traps over 99% of the fly ash. Helping to remove harmful pollutants before it ever leaves the power station's smokestacks. This long-term project finished in July 2003.

- Units #1 and #2 retired from service in 2013 and 2014. This was because of federal rules on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

SaskPower
In 2014, only the smallest operational unit, #3 120mw, was converted to Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS).
"CCS technology can reduce up to 90% of greenhouse gas emissions from Unit 3."

0:41 video @ 0:35

Power-Technology
"The plant’s production Unit 3, which opened on 2 October 2014, is the world’s first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) process on a coal-fired power plant." SaskPower originally planned to replace Unit #3 with a new 300mw plant. But when the cost for that plant ballooned from $1.5b to $3.8b, they looked for alternatives. "The Unit 3 retrofit, which cost approximately $354m, including the turbine cost, was self-financed by SaskPower. Installation of the CCS equipment cost approximately $1.4bn. The Canadian Federal Government committed C$240m in 2008....The Unit 3 retrofit reduced the plant’s output from 139MW to 110MW. It included the replacement of the existing steam turbine generator with a new one that can be integrated with the CO₂ and SO₂ capture mechanism. The captured CO₂ is compressed and transported through a 66km-long pipeline to an enhanced oil recovery project near Weyburn, which is part of an agreement signed with Cenovus Energy to purchase the full volume of one million tonnes of CO₂ a year. The unused CO₂ is transported to an injection well and storage site belonging to an Aquistore research project that is managed by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre. The SO₂ provides feedstock to a 50t per-day sulfuric acid plant, which will be built near the existing Unit 3. A flue gas desulfurization (FGD) system was put in place to allow the installation of CCS equipment, which reduces CO₂ emissions by approximately 90%. The flue gas is treated and hydrated before being compressed and transported to oil fields. This contains zero SO₂ and just 10% CO₂. Cansolv’s FGD technology then integrated the SO₂ and CO₂ systems within a single plant."

eenews
It was not only the world's first commercial scale CCS, it is currently (2022) the world's only CCS "after NRG Energy’s Petra Nova facility in Texas went offline in mid-2020 (E&E News PM, July 28, 2020)." In 2021 it captured only 44% of the designed 90% because of compressor failures. The capture equipment worked, but it can't be run if they can't push the resulting CO2 into the ground. "Mark Demchuk, national director of strategy and stakeholder relations at the International CCS Knowledge Centre, added that 'the extended duration of the carbon capture facility being offline can be attributed to the fact that compressors are large, custom-made pieces of equipment and spare parts are not readily available.'" Unit #4 was retired in Dec 2021.
[Then for CCS to work, a standard compressor design needs to be developed. Custom manufacturing is one of the issues that killed nuclear power. I would have assumed that compressor technology is mature, but I guess not. But below we learn CCS has other economic problems.]

Note that the parasitic power is 160-110 = 50mw. The compressor is not the only component of the parasitic power. Heat is required to release CO2 from the amine absorption solution. [4:58] 

Size: Original 139 MW gross upgraded to 160 MW gross; Net after CO2 capture retrofit (1Mt/yr) is 110 MW net

Capture Technology: Post-combustion amine

Start Date: Started in October 2014. Fully operational end 2016

[mit]

Coal-fired units with CCS cost $140 per megawatt-hour. Gas-fired units cost $60 to $70 per mwh. Even when gas was still expensive in 2010 (before fracking), it cost just $67-$96 per mwh. In 2010 wind cost $65-$110 and it is now (2017) down to $30-$60. However, those wind costs don't consider the variability of wind energy. Additional costs need to be added for storage (e.g. batteries) and/or peaking plants. Every single person in Saskatchewan paid $1000 for an experiment that was an economic failure. [cbc]

A photo of the backside is more interesting because it shows the pollution equipment that has been added. Three units have a bag house and Unit #3 needed a whole new building for the CCS.

WesternInvestor

8:41 YouTube virtual tour  At 3:45 it explains how the SO2 and CO2 is captured. This provides construction dates of 2011-14. Other sources said 2014-16. The compressor raises the CO2 to 2,500psi and converts it to a liquid. [5:53] The SO2 is converted into sulfuric acid.