A carbon capture and storage facility operated at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam unit 3, which ran into problems in its first year of operation, seems to have overcome them and is now operating with a reliability rate of over 92%, SaskPower says.
After initial excitement about successfully operating the world’s first full-scale carbon capture and sequestration process at an operating power plant, SaskPower discovered a number of problems with the facility that resulted in numerous repairs and operational changes.
In a blog post dated May 9, Saskatchewan’s provincial electric utility reported that the 161 MW (gross) Unit 3 was online 100% in April and that 82,033 metric tons of carbon dioxide had been captured that month. “This brings the total of CO2 captured in 2016 to just under 300,000 tonnes, or 75 per cent of what was captured in 2015. We remain on track to meet our target of 800,000 tonnes captured in 2016,” the company said.
To date in 2016, SaskPower says Unit 3 “is operating above the 85% reliability target set for all power units at Boundary Dam Power Station. Of the first 121 days of 2016 the CCS system has been up for 112 days, achieving a reliability rate of more than 92%.”
SaskPower says the facility is operating “at a level that exceeds federal emission regulations and meets SaskPower’s CO2 sales commitment.”
Boundary Dam, which is located about a dozen miles north of the U.S. border, currently consists of four units and a capture facility for one of those units. The capture facility also includes an SO2 amine capture process and an acid plant to convert the gas to saleable sulphuric acid. SaskPower said it is continuing to commission that process and is “currently performing final safety checks.”