Stop the Hogs!

LARSEN: Carbon Capture & Storage A Waste of Time

CCS is essentially a waste of time.

At best a coal fired plant is 40% efficient (remember your high school physics about heat loss in heat engines?) Adding a CCS facility to an electrical plant reduces the overall efficiency of the plant to around 15%. In other words taking a coal fired electrical plant, adding on the hobbles of a scrubber and compressor to push the captured CO2 into the ground and viola, you are wasting around 80% of the coal’s energy in waste heat.

If my memory serves, TransAlta had a similar experiment in Alberta which they abandoned once the government subsidies were withdrawn because it was simply not economic. Because of the laws of physics making it economic will be next to impossible.

Lastly, the experience of this CCS nonsense also shows it is short term at best. When you compress CO2 and CO you also get a little bit of water with it, which makes the resulting product highly acidic. This wrecks pipes and compressors very quickly. Since the formations they are proposing to pump this junk into are old oil and gas formations, which are really old coral reefs, the resulting acid dissolves the coral, resulting in the destruction of the formation.

This whole thing is just more Conservative wish fulfillment ideology without much if any basis in reality.

Why are the Conservatives in Saskatchewan so intent on mimicking the same mistakes Alberta made ten years ago? Do they have a secret stash of oil they intend to sell off?

Ken Larsen
Red Deer, AB

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PREMIER WALL TELLS SASKATCHEWAN STORY AT MAJOR U.S. CARBON CAPTURE MEETING

< http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=fef297 ... 3de6b3636a >

News Release - May 9, 2013

Premier Lead-Off Speaker at 12th Annual CCUS, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall will be the lead-off speaker at the 12th Annual Carbon Capture Utilization and Sequestration Conference in Pittsburgh, May 14.

“Saskatchewan is an energy powerhouse and a major player in the field of carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery, thanks to the hard work of SaskPower, the Petroleum Technology and Research Centre and many others,” Wall said. “With significant help from the federal government, we’re investing $1.24 billion to build the world’s first and largest post-combustion commercial-scale clean coal, carbon capture and storage project; a project that is on time and on budget.”

The conference is being held in co-operation with a number of leading groups, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the United States, Carnegie Mellon University and the North American Carbon Capture and Storage Association.

More than three hundred scientific and technical papers will be presented by scientists from all over the world.

“Coal is at the very least a transitional source of energy that will be with us for some time,” Wall said. “Saskatchewan technology is a potential game changer in terms of worldwide GHG reductions.” -30-

For more information, contact:

Kathy Young
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0425
Email: kathy.young@gov.sk.ca
Cell: 306-526-8927

= = = = =

NDP wants to call the police over University of Regina carbon capture contract

< http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... 30424.html >

CBC News Posted: Apr 24, 2013 10:00 PM CST
Last Updated: Apr 24, 2013 10:11 PM CST

The opposition NDP says if the provincial government doesn't go the RCMP about a troubled carbon capture project at the University of Regina, it will.

The NDP's Trent Wotherspoon has been raising the issue in the legislature almost every week since the spring session began.

It concerns a story CBC News reported earlier in February about an untendered contract between IPAC-CO2 at the U of R and a company called Climate Ventures Inc., or CVI.

Wotherspoon said Wednesday that opposition MLAs have obtained a report that claims CVI used assets paid for with public money to do work for other clients.

"That government created with taxpayers' money CVI that with all the evidence appears to be little more than a flow-through scheme to rip off public dollars," Wotherspoon said in the legislative chamber. "This report is scathing." [ . . . . ]

- - - - -

Related Stories:


1) University of Regina rules breached, investigative report says

Conflict of interest in CO2 venture 'should have been disclosed'

CBC News Posted: Feb 21, 2013 7:24 AM CST
Last Updated: Feb 21, 2013 7:42 AM

< http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... nture.html >


2) U of R sues over 'misappropriated' CO2 technology

< http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatche ... -1303.html >

University countersued by firms from Saskatchewan and South Korea

Geoff Leo CBC News Posted: Mar 18, 2013 6:42 AM CST
Last Updated: Mar 18, 2013 6:40 AM CST

ARNEY: Appalled by what we're leaving for future children . . .

----- Original Message -----
From: Jeremy Arney
To: Elaine Hughes ; kathy.young@gov.sk.ca
Cc: SK Premier Wall ; Resurgence/Ecologist Newsletter ; Council of Canadians ; Breitkreuz, G. MP-Ottawa ; MULCAIR, T. NDP Leader ; TRUDEAU, J. LIB. Leader ; SK Watershed Auth. ; SK NDP Caucus ; SK Party Caucus ; SK Green Leader - Lau, Victor ; Sierra Club - US ; Sierra Club - Can. ; Sask Environmental Society ; Sask EcoNetwork ; Safe Drinking Water Foundation ; Safe And Green Energy ; Ralph Goodale, Liberal.ca ; NFU ; Nature Canada ; Greenpeace ; Friends of the Earth ; Food Secure Saskatchewan ; Food Secure Canada ; Food For All Coalition ; Environmental Defence ; Elizabeth May, MP ; Ecojustice ; Cornell University Birds ; Coalition for a Clean Green SK ; Breitkreuz, G. Yktn-Mel. ; Jeremy Arney

Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 9:39 PM
Subject: Re: PREMIER WALL TELLS SASKATCHEWAN STORY AT MAJOR U.S. CARBON CAPTURE MEETING

Hi Elaine,

Thanks for sending me this which shows so clearly how the neo-conservative puppets in this country have abandoned their responsibilities and are literally trying to bury their crimes against nature and the earth, all for the almighty dollar and useless GDP based on a false monetary system solely based on debt.

It seems that the corporate driven "profit at all costs" agenda these clowns seem to be following is designed to give them (read clowns or puppets) comfort and money today with absolutely no regard to what they are doing either to our country, world or the generations which were supposed to be able to follow us.

Whilst I dearly love my children, grandchildren and new great grand son, I am appalled at what we are leaving for them, and wonder if I could live long enough whether there will even be an inhabitable world for my great great grandchild.

Perhaps my conscience would leave me alone if I had never married or had children in the first place, and it is a sick realisation that those who were elected to serve and look after the people and the country have abandoned that responsibility and surrendered the future of the world to money grubbing fools who will never understand because they will not be here. Hopefully their souls will be resting in the hell they all seem to believe in. They are certainly creating one here on earth.

I consider what I have thought about not ever marrying and having children to leave this mess to, to be an indictment to the treasonous, destruction of what the First Nations people have so rightly called the creator's land which they had been looking after very well for thousands of years until we came along and literally screwed every thing up.

As ever I appreciate what you are trying to accomplish.

Jeremy Arney
#6, 2931 Craigowan Rd
Victoria BC V9B 1N1
250-216-5400

Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weyburn-Mi ... de_Project ]

The Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project (or IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project) is, as of 2008, the world's largest carbon capture and storage project.[1] It is located in Midale, Saskatchewan, Canada.

[ . . . ]

Claims of leaking[edit source | editbeta] (Go to website for Links)

A report[2] of CO2 leaks above the project was released in January 2011[3] by an advocacy group on behalf of owners of land above the project. They reported ponds fizzing with bubbles, dead animals found near those ponds, sounds of explosions which they attributed to gas blowing out holes in the walls of a quarry. The report said that carbon dioxide levels in the soil averaged about 23,000 parts per million, several times higher than is normal for the area. "The ... source of the high concentrations of CO2 in the soils of the Kerr property is clearly the anthropogenic CO2 injected into the Weyburn reservoir... The survey also demonstrates that the overlying thick cap rock of anhydrite over the Weyburn reservoir is not an impermeable barrier to the upward movement of light hydrocarbons and CO2 as is generally thought." said the report.[4]

The PTRC posted an extensive rebuttal of the Petro-Find report, stating that the isotopic signatures of the CO2, claimed by Mr. Lafleur to be indicative of the manmade CO2 being injected into the reservoir, were in fact, according to studies of CO2 conducted by the British Geological Survey and two other European Union geological groups prior to CO2 being injected at Weyburn, occurring naturally in several locations near the Kerr farm. Subsequent soil surveys after injection in 2002 to 2005 found CO2 levels dropped in these same regions. In addition, prior to injection occurring into the oil field, these samplings were found to be as high as 125,000 parts per million and averaging 25,000 ppm CO2 across the region, even more than the average and largest readings from the Kerr's property that were being claimed as unusually high. The report also questions, based on seismic imaging conducted over ten years, that any active faults exist or that the caprock is compromised to allow pathways for the CO2 to reach the surface.[5] The PTRC acknowledged that they do not monitor the entire site for leaks, rather primarily above the part of the Weyburn field where CO2 is injected and key locations outside it, but the organization did monitor the Kerr's well between 2002 and 2006, finding no appreciable difference in water quaility.[6] They have also acknowledged that PTRC is a research organisation rather than a regulator, and manage the IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project on behalf of the International Energy Agency's Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme, which includes some 30 international research groups.[7]

References[edit source | editbeta]

^ Allan Casey, Carbon Cemetery, Canadian Geographic Magazine, Jan/Feb 2008, p. 63
[ http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazi ... carbon.asp ]

^ Lafleur, Paul (August 27, 2010). "GEOCHEMICAL SOIL GAS SURVEY, A Site Investigation of SW30-5-13-W2M, Weyburn Field, SASKATCHEWAN". [ http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/m ... nload/file ] Retrieved 2011-01-12. PDF file linked to from press release of 2011-01-11
[ http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/p ... rage-risks ].

^ "Sask. family demands answers on carbon capture and storage risks" (Press release). Ecojustice. January 11, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-12
[ http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/p ... rage-risks ].

^ Weber, Bob (January 11, 2011). "Land fizzing like soda pop: farmer says CO2 injected underground is leaking". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved January 11, 2011 [ http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environ ... daPopFizz/ ]

^ Petroleum Technology Research Center (January 19, 2011). "Latest News". PTRC web site. Petroleum Technology Research Center. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
(NOTE*** Unable to access this item - Aug. 30.13)


^ "Alleged leaks from carbon storage project questioned". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). January 19, 2011
[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technolo ... cle562508/ ]

^ Nikiforuk, Andrew (January 19, 2011). "More Fizz to Saskatchewan Carbon Storage Controversy". The Tyee. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
[ http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/01/19/CarbonStorage/ ]


= = == = =

KERR Site History: SW30-5-13-W2M near Weyburn, SK, Cameron and Jane Kerr

[ http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/m ... nload/file ]


= = = = =

More Fizz to Saskatchewan Carbon Storage Controversy

[ http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/01/19/CarbonStorage/ ]

Group overseeing project says it will refute study saying CO2 is bubbling back to surface.

By Andrew Nikiforuk, 19 Jan 2011, TheTyee.ca

A report that documented lethal levels of carbon dioxide in a farmer's field on top of a national $80-million demonstration carbon storage project in Saskatchewan has generated a storm of controversy, denials and calls for a more studies.

The Petroleum Research Technology Centre, a Regina-based industry and government research group overseeing the international project, says it will issue a technical report today, refuting the independent study. (When released, the report will be here.)

"We don't agree with the findings," says Steve Whittaker, the senior project manager for the IEA Weyburn-Midale Carbon Capture and Storage Project. "There are some significant deficiencies. It's a chicken little report."

But he admitted that monitoring for the project has been intermittent and only covers a fraction of the study area. "We're not a regulator. We're a research group." Whittaker also confirmed that there is no annual surface-monitoring program for CO2 leaks.

Billions spent pursuing sequestration

The Weyburn project, the world's largest full scale field study on capturing, injecting and storing carbon underground, represents a consortium of oil companies and oil exporting governments keen on proving the safety of burying carbon underground.

Both the Canadian and Alberta governments have devoted billions to the costly technology and want to build six or five demonstration cemeteries in Western Canada.

But the Weyburn project is also the only storage experiment where CO2 is also used to enhance oil recovery from an aging oil field. Cenovus Energy, formerly EnCana, injects up to 6,000 tonnes of CO2 a day from a coal-fired plant in North Dakota, to force out more oil from the field.

Most oil fields that inject CO2 (the gas works like a paint thinner) aren't regarded as safe or secure, explains a 2010 U.S. Department of Energy report, "due to missing operational and CO2 monitoring elements that are critical to demonstrating the effectiveness of the process for safely isolating CO2 away from the atmosphere for the purpose of addressing climate change."

High CO2 levels reported

Last week, a report by Paul LaFleur of Petro-Find Geochem found extremely high levels of CO2 (110,000 ppm) during a gas soil survey, or enough to asphyxiate a human. It also matched the fingerprints of the carbon on the farmer's property to that being stored in the giant Weyburn reservoir.

LaFleur and the environment group Ecojustice did the study last year after Cameron and Jane Kerr, a retired farming couple, complained about dead animals, foaming water and explosions at a gravel pit on their farm beginning in 2004.

The Kerrs say that the Saskatchewan government promised a yearlong study in 2007, but never delivered.

Normal levels of CO2 above an oil field range around 5,000 ppm, says Lafleur. He suspects the CO2 on the Kerr property is leaking via a fracture somewhere in the storage site.

"I'm not for or against carbon capture and storage," adds Lafleur. "It's up to the people and government what they will accept in CO2 leakage and what they can live with. Transparency is the key."

To date, only 5 per cent of the 110 square mile oil field has been monitored and LaFleur says that's inadequate. Nor is the Kerr property included in the monitoring area. "The facts speak for themselves."

Global interest in Saskatchewan project

Whittaker confirmed that very little monitoring took place between 2004 and 2008. Between 2000 and 2004, his research group performed the bulk of the monitoring including background CO2 readings as well as surface water and seismic testing. "We are trying to figure out what a good monitoring interval looks like." He says the project plans to do a soil gas survey this fall.

However, a Regina-based group called the International Performance Assessment for Geologic Storage of CO2 (IPAC-CO2) also announced that it will put together a team of experts to investigate the findings of the Lafleur report.

Created by Royal Dutch Shell and the government of Saskatchewan, the research group has a mandate to demonstrate the safety of the controversial technology.

In addition, Bellona, an international Norwegian environment group that supports carbon storage as a solution to climate change, also has supported the need for a thorough investigation.

Fault leakage a 'remote possibility'

Whittaker characterized Lafleur's claim that CO2 was probably leaking up through faults or fractures as "an extreme and remote possibility."

One of the goals of the Weyburn project is to provide policy-makers with reliable information about the security and safety of carbon capture and storage.

Experts in carbon capture and storage acknowledge that techniques to properly measure whether or not a storage site is leaking are still in their infancy.

Carbon storage professionals (yes, they even have their own academic journal) all agree that leaks from wells, abandoned facilities or faults can compromise the security of carbon storage sites and pose a health risk to humans and animals. But they also admit that no real system yet exists to locate and quantify surface leakage.

Invisible subject

Because CO2 absorbs light at specific wavelengths, U.S. researchers are now experimenting with optical detection techniques. None appear to have been deployed yet at Weyburn despite its international profile.

One study by the U.S. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently concluded that "detection of potential CO2 leakage will be challenging" due to the large ground area that needs to monitored, as well as extreme variability in CO2 levels from the soil.

Carbon capture and storage has ignited controversy around the world. Energy economists call it wasteful and fiscally irresponsible technology, while coal and oil companies argue it will extend the oil age. Some environmentalists favor the unproven technology, while others say the money would be better spent on renewables instead of dead-end storage facilities.

- - -

Tyee writer in residence Andrew Nikiforuk is an award winning investigative journalist and author of the national bestseller: Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent.
[ http://www.dmpibooks.com/book/tar-sands ]

Read more: Energy,


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[ http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/02/03/Gas_Plant_Approved/ ]
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Inside a global effort to convince the public an unproven technology will let us have our fossil fuels and a cooler planet, too.

Read more: Energy,

= = = = =


PREMIER BRAD WALL WELCOMES VISIT BY SENATOR HEIDI HEITKAMP

[ http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=9f0331 ... 2ddc9ea1d8 ]

News Release - August 29, 2013

North Dakota Senator Visits World-Leading Carbon Capture Project

Premier Brad Wall today welcomed the visit by Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) as she toured SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Project near Estevan.

“When I met with Senator Heitkamp in Washington back in March, she expressed a great deal of interest in the Boundary Dam Project,” Wall said. “I’m glad her interest and enthusiasm for this groundbreaking project has continued and I welcome her to our province.”

Boundary Dam is the world’s largest commercial-scale coal fired carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility. Construction began in May of 2011. The project continues on time and on budget, with commercial operations set to begin in April of 2014.

On completion, the CCS technology at the plant will reduce emissions by up to 90 per cent. The CO2 captured at Boundary Dam will be used for enhanced oil recovery, or stored in a deep saline formation at the Petroleum Technology Research Centre’s Aquistore Project.

“With the federal and provincial investments in carbon capture technology to date, I can think of no other jurisdiction in the world that is beating Saskatchewan’s per capita investment in advanced clean energy technology,” Wall said. “This project is a great example of just how serious Canada and Saskatchewan are when it comes to controlling greenhouse gas emissions.”

A recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) states coal fuels 42 per cent of global electricity production and is likely to remain a key component of the world’s fuel mix for electrical production in the future, especially in developing countries. The IEA says CO2 capture and storage will have a significant impact on both existing and future plants. -30-

For more information, contact:

Karen Hill
Executive Council
Regina
Phone: 306-787-2127
Email: karen.hill@gov.sk.ca
Cell: 306-529-9207

$1.5 billion SaskPower Carbon Capture Project financially and environmentally irresponsible: Report

[ https://www.policyalternatives.ca/newsr ... worth-risk ]

SaskPower opened its $1.5 billion Boundary Dam Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Facility to much fanfare, with Premier Brad Wall hailing the project as “another Saskatchewan first.” However, a new report from the Saskatchewan Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives questions whether the rewards from such an enormous public investment outweigh the risks.

SaskPower’s Carbon Capture Project: What Risk? What Reward? by Brian Banks and Mark Bigland-Pritchard raises many questions about the cost of the project, the consequences for ratepayers, the purported environmental benefits and whether it was ultimately money well spent by the province. The authors conclude that the massive investment in CCS technology would have been much better spent on new, less-expensive, renewable sources of energy that would have a far greater environmental impact in terms of reduced Green House Gases (GHG) than what CCS technology can currently offer.

REPORT: SaskPower's Carbon Capture Project - What Risk? What Reward?
[ https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publi ... re-project ]
Author(s): Brian Banks, Mark Bigland-Pritchard February 10, 2015

World-First Financial Analysis of World's First Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Project

[ http://www.saskwind.ca/boundary-ccs ]

March 26, 2015

26-Mar-2015. The $1.467-billion Boundary Dam Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) facility is the world’s first industrial-scale, post-combustion, CCS project. It is located outside Estevan, Saskatchewan and commenced operations in October 2014.

To date there has been no publicly-available analysis of the revenues, expenses and profitability of this project. That information is urgently needed as decision-makers in Saskatchewan and around the word, consider the relative merits of CCS for mitigating carbon dioxide emissions.

Today's report, by Saskatchewan Community Wind, addresses that information deficit and is the first which considers the cash and, to a lesser extent, carbon flows associated with the $1.467-billion Boundary Dam Carbon Capture and Enhanced Oil Recovery Project. This report does not concern itself with the technical viability of CCS.


Press Release-PDF (Saskatchewan media)
[ http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5 ... elease.pdf ]


Backgrounder-PDF (Global media)
[ http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5 ... ounder.pdf ]


Executive Summary-PDF (Findings, Recommendations & Executive Summary)
[ http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5 ... ummary.pdf ]


Full Report -PDF
[ http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5 ... Report.pdf ]

Our report finds that the project generates losses in excess of $1-billion for electricity consumers of Saskatchewan: they will be paying for those losses through higher electricity prices for many years to come. That this CCS project was nonetheless built may be related to the nature of the principal beneficiary: The oil industry will substantially profit from a below-cost source of carbon dioxide which it will use to increase oil production from the aging Weyburn Oil Field in Saskatchewan.

Turns out the world’s first “clean coal” plant is a backdoor subsidy to oil producers

[ http://grist.org/climate-energy/turns-o ... producers/ ]

By David Roberts on 31 Mar 2015 77 comments

The world’s first “clean coal” plant — that is, the first full-size coal-fired power plant ever to capture and store the majority of its CO2 emissions — is located in, of all places, Saskatchewan. (They should change the name to “Of All Places, Saskatchewan.”) According to the first financial analysis done on the project, it appears to be functioning primarily as a public subsidy to the province’s aging oil industry.

This takes a little explanation. First some quick background on the project.

—

The Boundary Dam Power Station, [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Dam_Power_Station ] located just north of the North Dakota border, is the province’s oldest and largest coal-fired power plant. Its first boiler was commissioned in 1959. Boilers have been added and decommissioned over the years; there are now six, four of which are active. It is owned and run by SaskPower, the province’s principal utility. (A vertically integrated monopoly utility, for those keeping score at home.)

In 2008, the provincial government announced the Boundary Dam CCS project, [ http://www.saskpowerccs.com/ ] whereby one of the station’s boilers (No. 3) would be replaced with a modern 160-megawatt boiler and coupled with a facility that would capture and store up to 90 percent of the boiler’s CO2 emissions. Seven years later, in 2014, boiler No. 3 began operations, representing the world’s first full-scale coal CCS project.

The captured carbon dioxide is compressed into liquid form and transported via pipeline. Most of it goes northwest to the aging Weyburn oil field, privately owned by Alberta-based Cenovus Energy, where it is used in “enhanced oil recovery” (EOR), boosting oil production. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_oil_recovery ]

The same facility that strips carbon dioxide from the boiler’s flue gas also captures sulfur dioxide (which it condenses into sulfuric acid to sell for industrial use) and scrubs out NOx. Fly ash from coal combustion is also captured and sold for industrial use. It’s about as good as you can get for a coal plant, environmentally speaking.

Anyhow. In the run-up to its opening, the project got a lot of press — The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, etc. — but most of it was based on what the plant was expected to do, according to SaskPower.

A few days ago, the first financial analysis of the plant’s actual operations was released. It is not flattering.
[ http://www.saskwind.ca/boundary-ccs ]

MORE:

[ http://grist.org/climate-energy/turns-o ... producers/ ]