Canadian Carbon Capture Facility Eyes Industry And Power Plants

Carbon capture is alive and well. A Canadian company is opening a plant this month to manufacture carbon capture filters for commercial-scale projects. This is potentially a huge win for industry, bringing carbon capture closer than ever before.

We need to reduce heat-trapping emissions across all sectors to save the planet. Carbon capture allows businesses to continue doing what they do, but with a much smaller footprint. This helps countries and companies reach their goals of becoming carbon-neutral. Some methods, such as Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage and Direct Air Capture, can remove atmospheric CO2, especially for industries that are hard to decarbonize.

“Carbon management is a necessity, not a nice-to-have,” says Claude Letourneau, chief executive of Svante Inc. in Montreal, in a virtual conversation with me. “We’re building a factory now that will meet the demand.”

Savante’s new manufacturing facility is located in Vancouver, Canada. The company already works with Chevron and Delek and will partner with Mercer International, a pulp and paper enterprise. In the long term, it has its eye on power plants. Its technology can prevent CO2 from escaping or capture it from the atmosphere. This is known as biogenic CO2 removal, and the formal title of the CO2 capture process is Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage.

“Biogenic” CO2 refers to carbon dioxide originating from natural sources such as plants and trees, rather than fossil fuels. For example, trees absorb CO2 from the air. But if they are cut down and used to make paper, the same CO2 is released. Enter biogenic CO2 removal.

In contrast, direct air capture can remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Once snagged, the challenge is sequestering or using it to create industrial materials like cement or steel. It’s an emerging and expensive technology. For example, Swiss-based Climeworks has a project going in Iceland, which will capture and store 36,000 metric tons annually of CO2. Microsoft Corp. and Shopify want to use their services.

If a mill burns waste wood to generate energy, it releases CO2. However, don’t worry; operators can store that CO2 underground or reuse it to make such things as hydrogen to produce fuels and chemicals. If the companies employing this method wish to be even more eco-friendly, they should plant trees to replace those they cut down. Therefore, the pulp and paper industry can indeed achieve carbon neutrality.

“Biogenic emissions stem from natural sources like wood and plants. It is preferred for circular reuse because it represents carbon already in the above-ground ecosystem,” says Letourneau. “By contrast, anthropogenic CO2, produced by fossil fuels or industrial processes, represents net-new carbon drawn out of the ground. Most captured anthropogenic CO2 will have to be safely sequestered.”

What About The Cost?

Letourneau says implementing these technologies is affordable. The average North American releases about 15 tons of CO2 annually. Svante’s technology can remove carbon for $150 per ton. At this price, the average North American would pay $2,250 per year on carbon management—a comparable number to what we each pay for waste management. Most people don’t complain about the cost of that service.

Moreover, the Biden Administration estimated the social cost of carbon to be $190 per ton, although some experts assert it is significantly higher. The social cost of carbon refers to the economic damage caused by each additional ton of CO2 in the atmosphere. This includes crop damage, losses from natural disasters, and health impacts from extreme weather.

Investing in carbon management makes sense as long as carbon mitigation costs are lower than the social cost. “Governments can uniquely address the gap between the true social cost of carbon and what companies must pay today to emit freely. Emitting carbon is like using a credit card—the bill must be paid sooner or later. Failure to act now means acting in the future will only be more expensive,” says Letourneau.

Biogenic carbon dioxide removal technologies are high-priced. That’s because it takes a lot of energy to capture, compress, and transport the CO2. Meanwhile, storing CO2 underground requires geological surveys and secure storage sites.

However, the technology can also be utilized for power generation and cement production. The Norcem Brevik plant in Norway is one of the world’s first full-scale carbon capture projects in the cement sector, aiming to capture 400,000 tons of CO2 annually this year. The Boundary Dam in Saskatchewan, Canada, captures 1 million tons annually of CO2 from a coal-powered plant.

Meanwhile, Section 45Q of the U.S. tax code can help fund biogenic carbon dioxide removal. This federal tax credit incentivizes companies to capture and store CO2 underground or produce cement and steel.

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage projects in the industrial and power sectors qualify if they store 12,500 tons annually. The credit is $85 per ton if the CO2 is stored underground and $60 per ton if it is utilized to create other products. That can make carbon-negative industrial output financially viable.

“One day, you will buy any product with a logo that gives the carbon intensity, just like buying food provides the calorie count,” says Letourneau. “Once we reach that level, we can monetize the CO2.”

The paper mill is a test case. If the partnership between Svante and Mercer succeeds, capturing carbon at scale for industrial purposes will improve and expand, and new use cases, including power plants, will be found. Economies will grow while ecologies are preserved, giving an infusion to this technology.