In addition to six days of planned maintenance, SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project was taken offline for several days in November due to a compressor electrical failure, according to the utility’s latest monthly report on the facility. “Through the process, we were able to capture 47,113 tonnes of carbon dioxide while operating 67 per cent of the hours in the November. Since October 2014, we have captured over 1.25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide,” the report says.
November was the first month since August in which the plant ran less than 100 percent of the time. Over the last 12 months, BD3 has been online an average of 83 percent of the time. The plant was operational only 52 percent of the time in August, the worst performance of the year.
With a November CO2 capture capacity just 49 percent of its designed maximum, the plant’s daily average capture peaked at 2,647 metric tons.
SaskPower has an offtake agreement in place to provide 800,000 metric tons of CO2 annually to Canadian oil company Cenovus. The captured CO2 is used for enhanced oil recovery. Thus far, the plant has captured 733,963 metric tons of CO2 in 2016. “SaskPower continues to meet emission regulations and the needs of its offtaker. As we begin planning for 2017, our goal will be to continue meeting federal emission regulations and the needs of our offtaker,” the update says.