CO2 Solutions Provides Update on Greenhouse Carbon Capture Project

CO2 Solutions Inc., Quebec City, Que., Canada, a leader in the field of enzyme-enabled carbon capture technology, this week provided an update on progress at the corporation's first commercial project with Fibrek General Partnership, a subsidiary of Resolute Forest Products Inc. and Serres Toundra Inc. The project entails the deployment of a carbon capture unit and ancillary equipment at a pulp mill in the Saint-Félicien region of Quebec and the commercial reuse of the captured CO2 by the adjacent Serres Toundra greenhouse facility (the project).

CO2 Solutions and BBA, the engineering partner on the project, have completed the preliminary engineering phase. As a result, the corporation confirms that the CO2 capture unit will be designed to produce 30 metric tons/day (tpd) of CO2, which is at the high-end of the initially expected range. As the project's original financial projections were conservatively based on revenues generated by a smaller, 15 metric tpd unit, the corporation now projects annual revenues of approximately $750,000 from the project once it commences production.

With this first phase of the project successfully completed, the focus will turn to the detailed engineering of the CO2 capture and reuse facility, which is scheduled to be completed by October 2017. Ordering of certain long-lead items, for which engineering specifications have been developed, is anticipated for August. Initial mechanical integration work with the Resolute pulp and paper mill will be carried out during the fall 2017. Construction of plant components will take place during the winter. 

Structural and foundation work is anticipated to commence in April 2018, followed by assembly of constructed plant components. Commissioning and startup of the completed capture plant is projected for Q4 of 2018. This updated schedule reflects the project's later-than-expected start date, the result of delays in obtaining all the necessary project financing and the corporation's choice to limit construction activities during the winter months.

In 2014, the project was initially budgeted at $7.4 million. The currency (USD/CAD) fluctuations since 2014 as well as normal inflation have resulted in the corporation adjusting the project budget from the original $7.4 million to $8.4 million. Without these external factors, the budget is in line with initial estimates. Additionally, this increase is favorably compensated in the project's overall economics by the now higher revenue projections.

"We are very pleased with the progress of the project to date and the co-operation between the partners," said Richard Surprenant, CTO for CO2 Solutions. "The Project's cost is in line with our internal models as adjusted for currency fluctuations and inflation. This further confirms our industry leading low capital expenditure estimates for larger scale units."

Lyne Ricard, executive director, Project Management Practice at BBA, said that "we are very excited to be working on this first commercial CO2 capture project, which will deliver the blue print for future installations we anticipate marketing to our existing customer base. The beauty of CO2 Solutions' technology is that it not only helps mitigate carbon, and thereby promises to reduce the increasing liability associated with emitting carbon, but it also enables an economically viable reuse of CO2. We believe that this is a proposition that will resonate well with our industrial partners and look forward to increasing the visibility of this technology across various industries."

CO2 Solutions is an innovator in the field of enzyme-enabled carbon capture and has been actively working to develop and commercialize the technology for stationary sources of carbon pollution. CO2 Solutions' technology lowers the cost barrier to Carbon Capture, Sequestration, and Utilization (CCSU), positioning it as a viable CO2 mitigation tool, as well as enabling industry to derive profitable new products from these emissions. CO2 Solutions has built an extensive patent portfolio covering the use of carbonic anhydrase, or analogues thereof, for the efficient post‐combustion capture of carbon dioxide with low‐energy aqueous solvents. More information about the company is available online.