Boundary Dam Carbon Capture and Storage Project - Canada

The Boundary Dam Carbon Capture and Storage Project aims to make a viable, technical, environmental, and economic case for the continued use of coal with the deployment of the world's first commercial-scale, post-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS) project on a coal-fired power plant.

Fast facts:

This project transformed an aging coal-fired power unit into a reliable, long-term producer of 120 MW base load electricity capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by one million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year;
SaskPower's Boundary Dam Unit #3 is now producing affordable coal power for more than 100,000 homes and businesses for at least the next three decades and doing so 10 times more cleanly than other coal units and four times cleaner than a comparable natural gas unit.

The problem

SaskPower's Boundary Dam Unit #3 previously supplied 140 MW of electricity to SaskPower power grid while emitting 1.15 million tonnes of CO2 every year.

The solution

Now the same unit is is integrated with carbon capture technology and is capable of capturing 90% of those emissions, reducing Unit #3's emissions by 1 million tonnes a year. The CO2 that will be captured at Boundary Dam Power Station will be stored underground instead of being released into the atmosphere. This project uses a large “distributed control system” that uses a combination of networked and hardwired communication to allow the new Boundary Dam Carbon Capture Facility and the existing coal fired power plant to operate in unison.

Helping the planet

SaskPower’s project can be applicable to 95% of the world’s coal plants, the application of CCS as a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large power sources.

Helping people

The SaskPower’s CCS Project has received community support and input. A recent survey by the City of Estevan (where the Boundary Dam Power Station is located) showed that 84% of the local population support CCS technology as a way to keep using coal as a fuel source.

Scaling up

The Boundary Dam Power Station is typical of most coal-fired power plants, and is generally typical of coal power plants of any size throughout the world. As such, the Boundary Dam Integrated CCS Project has laid the groundwork for any coal-fired power station in the world to be integrated with large scale carbon capture.