Alberta Carbon Grid gets go-ahead to evaluate 900,000-hectare potential CCUS site

TC Energy Corp. and Pembina Pipeline Corp. have agreed with the Government of Alberta to further evaluate a 900,000-hectare area of interest (AOI) for safely storing carbon from industrial emissions in Alberta as part of the Alberta Carbon Grid (ACG). The land is north of Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.

The AOI’s proven deep porous geological formations and scale make it what the companies describe as an ideal CO₂ storage site. The evaluation agreement will allow ACG to further examine the site’s subsurface properties.

TC Energy says the agreement will allow the Alberta Carbon Grid to move forward into the next phase of Alberta’s carbon capture utilization and storage process (CCUS). As an open-access system, ACG is intended to allow access to customers of all sizes and industries, including oil and gas producers, refineries, petrochemical plants, and agricultural manufacturers.

ACG, still in its planning and evaluation stages, will come online in phases. The first phase is the 10-million tonne/year (tpy) Alberta Industrial Heartland project. Beyond that, ACG intends to expand through multiple storage hubs to as much as 20 million tpy throughout Alberta (OGJ Online, June 17, 2021).