Benefits from Alberta’s CCUS sector

Enhance Energy employees donated $2,500 and provided tools, equipment, and 10 staff members to help build a new community playground for the Haynes Community Society. Source: Enhance Energy

Environmental

The need for reliable and sustainable oil and gas resources is essential and, while the goal is to reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, it will take time. In the interim, decarbonizing across all energy and industrial sectors can be achieved with CCUS, among other technologies and solutions.

Alberta’s CCUS industry will significantly improve Canada’s environmental health and be vital in helping the country achieve emissions reductions targets. For example, the 240-kilometre Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL) pipeline, which has been operational since 2020, is one of the largest-capacity CO₂ transportation pipelines in the world. It connects industrial emitters of CO₂ to storage infrastructure. The pipeline transports 1.6 million tonnes (Mt) of CO₂ annually from two industrial emitters. In September 2023, a new extension called the Edmonton Connector was announced. It will expand the ACTL network to collect captured CO₂ from more industrial facilities, including Air Products’ Net-Zero Hydrogen Energy Complex.

Expansion of the CCUS sector in Alberta also encourages innovation and economic growth. The suite of federal funding supports for carbon management infrastructure has continued to grow, resulting in the stimulation of private sector and provincial funding. This includes the Strategic Innovation Fund’s $8 billion Net-Zero Accelerator to support the decarbonization of Canada’s largest industrial emitters. The Fund has set a goal to scale up clean technology and accelerate Canada’s industrial transformation across all sectors, with a target of 23.5 Mt in greenhouse gas emissions reduction per year by 2030.

Community Engagement and Participation

The carbon management industry strives to grow in an inclusive manner that inspires public confidence, respects Indigenous Peoples and other equity seeking groups, and creates sustainable jobs.

Indigenous communities are highly knowledgeable when considering the implications of developing the energy sector, and their participation in reducing emissions is imperative for success. For example, a study by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in Ottawa reports that some Indigenous communities are exploring nature-based carbon capture solutions, relying on Canada’s vast forests, which are some of the largest carbon sinks in the world. There is an opportunity for Indigenous and corporate collaborations on carbon capture.

The development of CCUS in Alberta promises benefits for Indigenous communities such as partnerships, business development, skills training, and employment. Indigenous workers in the oil and gas sector earn up to three times more than the average Indigenous worker.

Industry’s engagement with Indigenous communities is evident in the equity partnerships created for major new CCUS projects in Alberta. In 2022, Enbridge signed an agreement with four Treaty 6 Nations—the Alexander First Nation, Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation, Enoch Cree First Nation and Paul First Nation—to partner on the Open Access Wabamun Carbon Hub. The deal also includes a provision for the Lac St. Anne Métis Community to join in future CCUS development. Around that time, those same four Treaty 6 communities joined in an agreement with Wolf Midstream and Whitecap Resources for another CCUS hub in the same region.

John Desjarlais, the executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network, a professional engineer, and member of the Nehinaw Cree Métis community, is optimistic about the CCUS industry’s early successes and its potential for Indigenous communities. In an article from the Canadian Energy Centre, he pointed out that because CCUS is an emerging industry, it’s a blank canvas on which benefits can be created for Indigenous communities. “It aligns with our expectation as a society, as well as Indigenous views on land-use stewardship. It takes a long-term view of energy production, which is also important,” he said.

Source: Enbridge

Social

Many CCUS companies look for opportunities to contribute and give back to the communities they operate in, which are often rural and remote. As Alberta’s CCUS sector grows and develops, those small communities will see more investment in recreation, infrastructure, and more.

Enhance Energy, an Alberta-based carbon management company and leader in permanently sequestering carbon emissions, has operations in the hamlet of Haynes, Alberta, just east of Red Deer. Wanting to give back to the community and the people in that area, the company made a $2,500 donation to the Haynes Community Society for a new playground. They also provided in-kind support that included equipment, tools, and 10 staff members from their Calgary office and field operations who helped to construct the hamlet’s new community playground.

Alberta’s CCUS companies are even contributing to positive social impacts internationally! A partnership between Grayslake North High School in Illinois; North Shore Gas in Denver, Colorado; and Calgary-based CleanO₂ paved the way for the installation of an innovative environmental sustainability technology in the school. CleanO₂ developed a carbon capture unit called the CarbinX that, when installed into a building’s existing heating system, captures carbon emissions and transforms them into a substance called pearl ash. CleanO₂ then uses that pearl ash to create products like soap and laundry detergents.

Installing the CarbinX unit made Grayslake North High School the first public school in the world to use this pioneering technology and will reduce the building’s emissions by nearly seven metric tonnes of CO₂ per year. The principal said the installation of the unit underscores the school’s leadership in sustainability and its dedication to exploring new ways to minimize its environmental impact.

Economic

Carbon management represents a fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar global market opportunity. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that US$160 billion in cumulative investment is needed globally by 2030, with recent CCUS project announcements pushing annual investment as high as US$40 billion by 2024, there is much room for growth and development in this evolving sector.

Canada can offer project investment opportunities that have a competitive cost per tonne of CO₂ reduction. In addition, public funding and trade promotion of Canadian carbon management technology companies have already helped pave the way for international investment.

The economic benefit of three large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Canada could lead to an increase of $2.7 billion in GDP based on a four-year construction and development timeframe. Furthermore, new industries associated with carbon management—such as low-carbon hydrogen, negative emissions, and CO₂ utilization—are expected to provide an increasingly significant source of export and economic growth.