Backgrounder: Canada Invests in Carbon Capture and Storage in Alberta

Today, the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced more than $21.5 million toward cutting-edge, made-in-Canada carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies — from advancing CO₂ storage sites and subsurface analysis technologies to cleaner diesel engines. These projects will drive emissions reductions, create jobs and catalyze new opportunities for Canadian innovation.

Energy Innovation Program — Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage Research, Development and Demonstration Call

Funding under this call supports the research, development and demonstration of next-generation carbon capture and storage technologies that have the potential to significantly reduce the costs of capturing and storing carbon.

Project name: Bow Valley Carbon – Storage Demonstration Project
Recipient: Bow Valley Carbon Cochrane Limited Partnership (a collaboration between Inter Pipeline Ltd. and Entropy Inc.)
Location: Calgary and Cochrane, Alberta
Funding amount: $10,000,000
Description: This project will design and install a CO₂ compression and conditioning system, transportation pipeline and sequestration well. Together, these components will aim to capture 40,000 tonnes of CO₂ /year of emissions, equivalent to taking approximately 12,255 cars off the road annually, from the Interpipeline Cochrane Natural Gas Extraction Plant. The data and findings will be shared with academia to support further research on carbonate sequestration.

Project name: The Wabamun Hub CO₂ Storage Optimization Project
Recipient: Enbridge Inc.
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Funding amount: $4,000,000
Description: This project will characterize deep saline reservoirs in Central Alberta. It supports Enbridge’s Open Access Wabamun Hub being developed north and west of Edmonton to provide dedicated, utility-scale CO₂ transportation and storage solutions serving CO₂ capture projects including Heidelberg Materials’ Edmonton capture project.

Project name: Enhance’s Origins CCS Hub: Development and Regulatory Work
Recipient: Enhance Energy Inc.
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Funding amount: $5,000,000
Description: This project will use a wide range of subsurface data to support the Origins CCS Hub. This approach, which targets a pressure-depleted saline aquifer within a Canadian carbonate reservoir, has the potential to support hub development in novel geologies without access to the Basal Cambrian Sandstone.

Project name: Geophysical Subsurface Imaging and Analytics Evaluation
Recipient: OptiSeis Solutions Ltd.
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Funding amount: $538,000
Description: This project aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of new and existing subsurface analysis technologies for measurement, monitoring and verification of CO₂ geological storage.

Project name: Development of Oxy-Fire Combustion for Diesel Generator CO₂ Capture
Recipient: OCCAM’s Technologies Inc.
Location: Nisku, Alberta
Funding amount: $2,016,364
Description: This project will investigate and test modifications to diesel engines to enable cost-effective, small-scale carbon capture using exhaust gas recirculation. This approach has the potential to develop economically viable capture processes for distributed emission sources in hard-to-decarbonize industries such as locomotive rail transport, marine shipping and heavy-duty trucking.