Two years behind schedule, Boundary Dam 3 coal plant achieves goal of capturing 4 million metric tons of CO2

These have been tough times for advocates of capturing the carbon dioxide (CO₂) produced in coal-fired power plants.

Last May, the hyped Petra Nova project near Houston was indefinitely mothballed because low oil prices made using the captured CO₂ for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) uneconomical. The fact that the project’s operating performance was nowhere near expectations—90% carbon capture rate and an 85% capacity factor—was almost overlooked by the owners and in the coverage of Petra Nova’s demise.

That has left Boundary Dam 3 in Canada as the only project capturing CO₂ from a coal plant. On March 31, SaskPower (Boundary Dam 3’s owner) noted that the project had captured a total of 4 million metric tons of CO₂ and claimed this was “another milestone to be proud of.”

The carbon capture facility at Boundary Dam was designed to capture 3,200 metric tons of CO₂ daily, or slightly more than 1 million metric tons annually. It has barely achieved that goal on any single day and has never done so over any extended period.