The Corporation is pleased to announce that the start of the commissioning of the CO2 capture unit officially took place on March 14, 2019. This start-up was preceded by the successful pre-operation verifications of each of the capture unit's systems, after which the unit was put into operation and the first tonnes of CO2 were captured. The Corporation now expects to ramp up the overall capture rate to validate the unit's nominal capacity of 30 tonnes of CO2 per day.
The construction of the Saint-Félicien CO2 capture unit was partly financed with investments from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and the Technoclimat program of the Quebec government as well as a loan from Canada Economic Development (CED).
"With the start-up of the Saint-Félicien capture unit, CO2 Solutions has achieved an exciting milestone, not only for the Corporation but also for the carbon capture industry," stated Richard Surprenant, CO2 Solutions' Chief Technology Officer. "This unit, a 3x scale-up from our currently operating 10-tpd unit in Montreal-East, confirms the position of our proprietary enzymatic technology as the world's most advanced second-generation carbon capture technology. We have demonstrated once again the dependability and simplicity of our enzymatic technology."
Once the Saint-Félicien capture unit reaches its nominal capacity of 30 tonnes of CO2 per day, a six-month demonstration period will begin, after which the commercial phase will begin and the Corporation will generate revenues from the sale of the CO2 to Toundra Greenhouse. This unit, the Corporation's second operating CO2 capture unit, is a first-of-a-kind commercial unit and, as a result, it confirms the enzymatic technology's attainment of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 8.
It will provide several benefits to its stakeholders, from generating revenues for CO2 Solutions, to reducing the Resolute pulp mill's CO2 emissions and enhancing the growth of Toundra Greenhouse's production with a non-fossil source of CO2. Of particular note is that, unlike CO2 capture processes that use toxic amine chemicals, the Corporation's enzymatic technology produces no toxic emissions or wastes, making it a cleantech process that is clean, a rarity among known CO2 capture technologies. The Corporation continues to attract strong interest from companies worldwide seeking a proven, cost-effective and environmentally friendly CO2 capture technology.