Keephills 3 CCS project

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Keephills 3 CCS project was a planned conversion of the 495-megawatt unit 3 of the Keephills power station west of Edmonton.

Background

Keephills 3 was commissioned in 2011 and is jointly owned by TransAlta and Capital Power Corporation. It was proposed that the unit be retrofitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS), but plans for CCS were called off in 2012.

In a media release Transalta state that the project "will pilot Alstom Canada's proprietary chilled ammonia process and will be designed to capture one megatonne (Mt) per year of carbon dioxide (CO2)" from the Keephills 3 power station. "The majority of the captured CO2 is intended to be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), while the remainder is expected to be injected safely in deep underground storage for permanent storage," the media release stated.

CCS project cancelled

In April 2012 the industry partners in the project announced that they would not proceed with the project following the completion of a "front end engineering and design (FEED) study". In a media release the companies stated that "although the technology works and capital costs were in-line with expectations, the market for carbon sales and the price of emissions reductions were insufficient to allow the project to proceed."

Website

Website: http://www.capitalpower.com/Consultation/Keephills3/Pages/default.aspx

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