Canada’s Entropy completes first CCS unit

Entropy, the carbon capture and storage (CCS) subsidiary of Canadian producer Advantage Energy, said September 28 it had completed its first CCS installation at the Glacier natural gas processing plant in west central Alberta, with first carbon injected in August.

The company said it believes this is the world’s first commercial project to capture and store CO₂ from the combustion of natural gas. The CO₂ has been sequestered in a deep saline aquifer.

Phase 1 of the Glacier project included the installation of one train of Entropy’s Modular Carbon Capture and Storage™ (MCCS™) process equipment, along with the pre-installation of waste heat recovery equipment that will be used in Phase 2.

The final total cost of Phase 1, which will capture and store about 47,000 metric tons/year of CO₂, was C$31mn, Entropy said.

Through the first month of operations, Phase 1 has achieved sustained CO₂ recovery rates of between 90% and 97%, capturing CO₂ from the exhaust of a natural gas-fired reciprocating engine, with a CO₂ concentration of 5.5%.

During early operations, Entropy used monoethanolamine (MEA), an industry standard carbon capture solvent, and the Entropy equipment has met or exceeded internal expectations and modeling. In the coming weeks, the MEA will be replaced by Entropy23™, Entropy’s proprietary solvent.

In Phase 1B, which will begin in Q4 2022, Entropy will install its patent-pending Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage™ (iCCS™) equipment at Glacier. Phase 1B is designed to capture and store an additional 16,000 mt/yr of CO₂ at a cost of about C$12mn.

This phase marks the first deployment of the iCCS™ product, which includes a new 5,000 horsepower gas compressor package delivered from the fabricator with Entropy’s capture process equipment built in. This is expected to reduce energy intensity and total installed costs significantly, when compared to a retrofit installation.

All Phase 1B equipment has been procured and is expected to come onstream by Q2 2023, Entropy said.

Entropy expects to take a final investment decision on Phase 2 at Glacier, which will capture an incremental 136,000 mt/yr of CO₂, by Q4 2022, pending regulatory approvals, and to have the phase onstream by the end of 2023.

When all phases are operational at Glacier, Entropy expects to be capturing 200,000 mt/yr of CO₂, or 90% of the plant’s total emissions, which will be sequestered in a local saline aquifer approved by regulators. All phases are expected to qualify for the federal government’s investment tax credit of up to 50%.

However, future investments by Entropy in Canada could face stiff competition from enhanced 45Q credits introduced in the recently-enacted Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Entropy said. Those enhancements include a guaranteed production tax credit of US$85/mt for a 12-year term.

“These enhancements have created a stronger CCS incentive market in the US with significantly more carbon pricing certainty, although the Canadian CCS investment tax credit helps to partially offset such uncertainty in Canada,” Entropy said. “Entropy intends to focus its investments on the markets that have the highest risk-adjusted return.”