Canada’s Entropy commissioning Glacier CCS project

Canadian carbon capture and storage (CCS) developer Entropy said July 5 it has begun commissioning the C$31mn (US$23.8mn) first phase of its Glacier CCS project in west central Alberta and has sanctioned the project’s C$8mn Phase 1b.

Phase 1 of the project, at Advantage Energy’s 400mn ft³/day Glacier gas plant in the Alberta Montney, includes one train of Entropy’s Modular Carbon Capture and Storage™ (MCCS™) process equipment as well as all the waste heat recovery equipment required for the full project, which will ultimately capture 200,000 metric tons/year of CO₂. The final cost of Phase 1 is about 10% higher than original budget estimates, reflecting recent inflationary pressures, largely for steel and copper.

Commissioning of the first phase began June 27 and is expected to take several weeks, with first carbon injections anticipated within four weeks. With capacity to capture and geologically sequester 47,000 mt/yr of CO₂, Entropy believes Glacier CCS to be the world’s first commercial project to capture and store CO₂ from the combustion of natural gas.

The first month of testing at Phase 1 will gather MCCS™ performance data using a standard monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent. Entropy will then introduce its proprietary Entropy23™ solvent, which has been undergoing long-term testing at the University of Regina’s Clean Energy Technologies Research Institute, for complete performance benchmarking.

Phase 1b at Glacier, which is scheduled to be on-stream by Q2 2023, will capture and store an additional 16,000 mt/yr of CO₂ and will mark the first deployment of Entropy’s Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage™ product, which incorporates a new 5,000 horsepower gas compressor package fabricated with built-in capture equipment, reducing energy intensity and total installed cost significantly below that of a retrofit. The new compressor package will also increase the capacity of the Glacier plant to 425mn ft³/day.

Phase 2 of the project, which Entropy expects to sanction by the end of this year pending updated cost estimates to account for inflation, will add 136,000 mt/yr of CO₂ capture and storage capacity and is anticipated to be on-line by the end of 2023. All phases of Glacier CCS are expected to qualify for the Canadian government’s recently announced 50% investment tax credit.

Entropy also said it had made substantial progress, with oil sands producer Athabasca Oil, on a project to install MCCS™ technology at Athabasca’s in situ Leismer operation, with a final investment decision on the first phase, to capture 156,000 mt/yr of CO₂, expected during Q3 2022, pending updated cost estimates and regulatory approval of geological storage plans.

The project, which is expected to capture 440,000 mt/yr of CO₂ in two phases, would be the first commercial use of CCS on a once-through steam generator, which are widely used in thermal oil operations around the world.

Beyond Glacier and Leismer, Entropy said its pipeline of CCS projects continues to grow, and it has been engaged in various capacities to contribute to five global-scale projects. In aggregate, it said it is approaching 10mn mt/yr of CCS projects under development.