The Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project in Saskatchewan, Canada, captured 488,300 metric tons of carbon in the first half of 2016, 62,200 more than captured in all of 2015, project owner SaskPower announced Thursday. “This means the carbon capture unit has surpassed the capture of a million tonnes of carbon dioxide since it began operations in October 2014,” the utility said in a press release.
In 2014, the plant captured 113,600 metric tons of CO2 from October, when it was brought online, to the end of the year. In 2015, the facility captured 426,100 metric tons of CO2. To date the plant has captured a total of 1,028,000 metric tons of CO2 since coming online.
The plant operated nearly 100 percent of July, slowing for only 15 minutes at the end of the month. The plant performed at 76 percent of maximum capacity for the month, an improvement over June’s 64 percent.
In June, SaskPower encountered problems with the amine used in the plant’s capture process being affected by heat and coal particulates. The July update suggests the issues have been addressed. “To increase daily production and potentially reduce periodic maintenance outages, SaskPower has applied new equipment to filter the amine solution at the centre of the process. This has been online for approximately 10 days and has so far reduced degradation of the amine solution by more than half,” the update says.
August could be a slower month, according to the company. SaskPower might have to conduct a week of planned maintenance on the facility, though it is considering options to push that back to the fall, according to the update.
