Photo supplied by Nauticol / Facebook (Photo by William Vavrek)

By Canadian Press

Nauticol Methanol Project

Proposed $2.6B Grande Prairie area methanol project inks deal to add carbon capture ability

Mar 23, 2021 | 1:57 PM

CALGARY – A partner in an Alberta carbon capture and storage project that recently celebrated storing its one millionth tonne of CO2 says it has an agreement with a Grande Prairie area chemical plant developer that could result in building a second large-scale system.

Privately held Enhance Energy Inc. says it has agreed with Nauticol Energy Ltd. to work together on the capture and sequestration of up to one million tonnes of CO2 per year from Nauticol’s $2.6-billion proposed methanol facility to be built south of Grande Prairie, near the International Paper and Weyerhaeuser mills.

READ MORE: County of Grande Prairie deeming proposed methanol plant in the public interest

Currently, Enhance takes emissions captured by partner Wolf Midstream from two industrial plants northeast of Edmonton and transports them south on the 240-kilometre Alberta Carbon Trunk Line system to be injected underground in an oilfield for enhanced oil recovery and permanent storage.

Nauticol CEO and co-founder Mark Tonner says adding the carbon capture component is essential to attract financial backers for his company’s plant because it will enable its production to be net carbon emission neutral and thus considered “blue methanol.”

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“Our plant design was already targeted to be a global leader in low emissions.” said Tonner. “Partnering with Enhance on CO₂ capture and sequestration changes the game of what low carbon methanol production at world scale will be from this point on.”

This partnership will see Nauticol be responsible for capturing the CO₂ and Enhance will manage the development, construction, and operation of the CO₂ sequestration system beyond the plant site.

Tonner says the project first announced in 2018 is expected to be in service in 2025 after a three-year construction period, assuming capital funding can be arranged.

It is to be composed of two 1.7-million-tonne-per-year trains which may be developed at once or one after the other.

Tonner says the Nauticol project would create methanol from abundant nearby sources of natural gas for sale as a marine fuel and in industrial processes mainly in Asian markets.

(The Canadian Press – with files from Shaun Penner / EverythingGP)