Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
8/29/2014
Drilling to further explore the potential for underground storage of carbon dioxide in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia is on track to begin this fall, Carl Poirier, President and CEO of the Carbon Capture and Storage Research Consortium of Nova Scotia, told GHG Monitor this week. The proposed exploratory well will be located on the Island of Cape Breton, at one of three sites the consortium identified as potentially acceptable for the underground storage of CO2. “Right now we’re in the middle of characterization of that site. We’ve conducted some seismic surveys last fall and that determined that the reservoir that we thought was there is there, but we still don’t know any properties,” Poirier said. “We’re going to be drilling a well and bringing up core samples to a depth of, we’re estimating, around 1,700 meters. We’ll analyze that data and provide a report to the province on what that well has indicated. It’s not necessarily an indication of the full reservoir, but at least gets us one step closer.”
The consortium has been working to explore CCS potential in Nova Scotia since 2009 and is nearing the end of its undertaking. “We were tasked to determine the technical and economic feasibility of doing CCS here in Nova Scotia because at the time, in 2009 we were primarily a coal burning province, similar to Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada who are primarily coal burning provinces,” Poirier said. However, many variables are currently in play affecting the potential future of CCS in the province. Not only does it remain uncertain if underground storage is possible, but new emissions regulations in Canada may eliminate the need. “It all depends on whether Nova Scotia is going to continue to burn coal in the province,” Poirier said. “In Canada we have a federal regulation that by 2030 our coal plants have to be the equivalent of a natural gas burning facility, which would mean that CCS has to be part of that facility.” If the province continues to burn coal, CCS will be a necessary technology, but other options are present, Poirier said. “They would either have to switch to natural gas or they would have to put something to mitigate the coal burning.”
The Nova Scotia Environment Department paved the way for the consortium to move onto the next step of its research when it added CCS projects to the list of activities needing an industrial approval permit earlier this month. “The exploration portion of this required regulation, not for injection, just for exploration to determine the properties of this reservoir, to determine the makeup of it, the porosity permeability and whether it’s suitable for not only the injection, but the permanent storage and containment of CO2,” Poirier said. Once that exploration is completed and the results reported, the future of CCS in Nova Scotia is up to other parties. “Once we’ve determined whether it is possible and if it is, then it’s up to the province and Nova Scotia Power to take it to that next step, whether it be a pilot plant, an injection test facility and then beyond that, if those are successful, then eventually a commercial project,” Poirier said. The final reports are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.
