Shell’s Quest carbon capture and storage project has begun operations in Alberta, Canada.
The Quest project is designed to capture and store more than 1 million metric tons of CO2 each year.
Shell says, as part of its funding arrangements, it is publicly sharing information on Quest’s design and processes to further global adoption of CCS.
Quest will capture one-third of the emissions from Shell’s Scotford Upgrader (pictured), which turns oil sands bitumen into synthetic crude that can be refined into fuel and other products. The CO2 is then transported through a 65-kilometre pipeline and injected more than two kms underground below multiple layers of impermeable rock formations.
The project uses Fluor’s 3rd Gen Modular Execution approach. Fluor designed and built the facility using 69 separate interlocking modules that were assembled at the jobsite. The company says its modular design approach, which compresses the space requirements of a typical plant, reduced material quantities and the construction labor hours required in the field. Fluor says the approach also delivered capital efficiencies to the project and shortened the time to completion following delivery of the final module.
Quest is now operating at commercial scale after successful testing earlier this year, during which it captured and stored more than 200,000 tonnes of CO2.
Quest was built on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint-venture owners Shell Canada Energy (60 per cent), Chevron Canada Limited (20 per cent) and Marathon Oil Canada Corporation (20 per cent), and was made possible through strong support from the governments of Alberta and Canada, which provided C$865 million ($652 million) in funding.