Canada Officially Opens Integrated CO2 Technology Facility

Canada officially opened the CanmetENERGY CO₂ Research Facility (CanCO₂). This integrated pilot-scale carbon dioxide capture facility simultaneously removes pollutants while purifying and compressing CO₂ for transport, storage or use.

The CanCO₂ is located at the Natural Resources Canada Ottawa Research Centre in Bells Corners.

The Zero Emission Technologies group at Natural Resources Canada’s Ottawa Research Centre developed a CO₂ capture and compression unit suitable for separating CO₂ generated by an oxy-fuel (burning of fuel and pure oxygen) power plant and also from other industrial sources. The CanCO₂ is a trailer-mounted modular unit that is transportable and suitable for field testing and pilot-scale demonstrations.

As a portable near-zero emission test platform, this facility is in demand by industry and research organizations to optimize, reduce costs, evaluate and test technology options for CO₂ capture from a host of fossil fuel-fired plants.

The Zero Emissions Technologies Group of CanmetENERGY’s Ottawa laboratory developed the CO₂ Research Facility through a public–private partnership from Natural Resources Canada’s Program for Energy Research and Development (PERD), Technology and Innovation (T&I), the Government of Canada’s ecoETI and CanmetENERGY’s CO₂ R&D Consortium.

Current members include the Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI), Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), Ontario Power Generation, SaskPower, US DOE-NETL, and CO₂ Capture Project (CCP) (a consortium consisting of Eni Group, StatoilHydro, Shell, BP, Suncor, Chevron Petrobras, and ConocoPhillips).