Alberta Partners in Global CCUS Initiative to Leverage Investment From 8 Countries

EDMONTON, Alberta, March 04, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ERA is committing over $2 million to four carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) projects worth almost $24 million through an international partnership with Accelerating CCS Technologies (ACT). These innovative Alberta-based projects were selected through the ACT consortium’s recent Call for Proposals and include investment from eight countries to support their commercialization in the province.

In total, 13 projects from around the world worth $68 million in public and private funds were selected; $43 million comes from participating ACT partners. Each project consists of a consortium of at least three eligible applicants from three countries. Projects were selected through a rigorous two-stage evaluation process led by an independent international expert panel. Funding is being sourced from Alberta’s industry-funded Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) fund.

The ACT consortium has established itself as a strong multinational funding approach for research and innovation dedicated CCUS, an area of intense global interest as a key emissions reduction opportunity for the large industrial sector: power generation, cement production, oil and gas, manufacturing, and more.

“Partnerships and investments like these are critical to helping Alberta leverage investments in CCUS. These innovative, world-class technologies will increase the value of our natural resources. These projects build on Alberta’s existing CCUS investments like Shell Quest, the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, and the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre, making our province a key player in developing solutions and knowledge to share with the world.”
Jason Nixon, Minister of Environment and Parks

“CCUS is one of the world’s most promising clean energy technologies and Alberta has undertaken some extraordinary things in this space. This collaboration will create more opportunities, more jobs, and more expertise in Alberta’s booming tech sector. Once again, Alberta is positioned to be an innovation leader.”
Doug Schweitzer, Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation

“The task of scaling-up and deploying CCUS technologies is too great for one company, one organization, or one jurisdiction to take on alone. Building on our international relationships and credibility, ERA is helping to find solutions by bringing the world to Alberta, and by taking Alberta’s innovation to the world.”
Steve MacDonald, CEO, Emissions Reduction Alberta

“The climate issue is something we need a global approach to. Four out of the thirteen new ACT funded projects have Canadian partners and consortia build of research partners from France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, USA, and UK. The knowledge that Alberta has in this space is highly acknowledged and serves our ambition to make CCUS a commercially viable climate mitigation technology.”
Ragnhild Rønneberg, Coordinator, ACT, Research Council of Norway

In 2020, ERA announced a partnership with the global initiative to invest in world class innovation that can lead to safe and cost-effective CCUS technologies. ACT is coordinated by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) and is a collaboration of research and innovation funding organizations from 16 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and others. Alberta, through ERA, is the first sub-national member.

The four Alberta-led projects selected include:

Carbonova Corp.
CREATE – Carbon reforming to economic additives for transitioning into emission-less era
Project value: $1,800,000 | ERA commitment: $543,000
ACT partners: France, Switzerland

Carbon Management Canada
RETURN – Reusing depleted oil and gas fields for CO₂ sequestration
Project value: $11,000,000 | ERA commitment: $345,000
ACT partners: Germany, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom

University of Alberta
ACTION – Advanced multitemporal modelling and optimisation of CO₂ transport, utilization, and storage networks
Project value: $7,300,000 | ERA commitment: $745,000
ACT partners: France, Netherlands, Romania, United Kingdom, USA

University of Alberta
ENSURE – Effective monitoring of long-term site stability for transparent carbon capture and storage hazard assessment
Project value: $3,600,000 | ERA commitment: $507,000
ACT partners: France, Norway

“The CO₂ level in the atmosphere is a problem that exists beyond geographical borders, and it requires creating a solution that is globally applicable, while managing the world’s demand for energy, sustainable food, a place to live, and transportation for everyone. Government of Alberta funding through ERA funding through ACT 3 is enabling contribution among nations to address one of the most pressing challenges of our time, while providing an opportunity for Canadian developed innovation to be implemented globally.”
Mina Zarabian, Co-founder and CEO, Carbonova Corp.

“Commercial-scale implementation of new technologies and innovative ideas is a critical part of optimizing our business and contributing to society’s net-zero goals. This funding will advance and accelerate our project, which has the potential to significantly increase capacity for permanent geological storage of CO₂ in Alberta.”
Don Lawton, Science Director, Carbon Management Canada, and Professor Emeritus, University of Calgary.

“Within Alberta, CCUS is an important component of a portfolio of technologies needed to achieve our climate and energy development goals. This support will allow us to establish an assessment tool to support the development of fit-for-purpose, future-proof CCUS networks of expected CO₂ supply from a variety of sources.” 
R.J. Chalaturnyk, Professor, Geotechnical Engineering, University of Alberta

“Technological advances and social license to operate both play pertinent roles in advancing and achieving society’s net-zero goals. This funding will facilitate and accelerate our science communication and technological studies on monitoring and verification of long-term CO₂ storage, in close collaboration with Shell Canada.”
Mirko van der Baan, Professor, Department of Physics, University of Alberta

Additional projects selected through ACT Call 3 can be found here.

In addition to leveraging international funding for CCUS initiatives, the partnership with innovation organizations around the world represents a significant opportunity for future collaboration and knowledge sharing. All projects will present their goals and plans at the Annual ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop and all recipients are required to produce a final outcomes report that will be shared publicly for the broader benefit of Alberta.

Alberta’s CCUS-related investments—Shell Quest, Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, ERA’s $35 million Grand Challenge: Innovative Carbon Uses, NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize, and the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre (ACCTC)—also put the province in an excellent position to create new knowledge and share expertise gained through these world-leading initiatives.

ABOUT EMISSIONS REDUCTION ALBERTA (ERA):
For 12 years, ERA has been investing the revenues from the carbon price paid by large final emitters to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative clean technology solutions. Since ERA was established in 2009, they have committed $796 million toward 222 projects worth $6.5 billion that are helping to reduce GHGs, create competitive industries and are leading to new business opportunities in Alberta. These projects are estimated to deliver cumulative reductions of 42 million tonnes of CO₂e by 2030.