Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday announced a plan to build a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta. The project, called Polaris CSS, would capture carbon dioxide from Shell’s Scotford refinery and chemicals plant. Shell expects to make a final investment decision (FID) by 2023 and start operations of the project’s initial phase around 2025.
Shell said the Polaris CCS project would have a total storage capacity of about 300 million tons of CO2. The initial phase is estimated to capture and store about 750,000 tons/year of CO2 from the Scotford complex. It would help Shell reduce its Scopes 1 and 2 emissions by up to 40% from the refinery and up to 30% from the chemical plant while opening up to 2,000 jobs. The second phase will include the construction of a CO2 storage hub in Alberta.
The project is part of Shell’s target to cut emissions to net-zero in 2050. The company plans to expand its CCS capacity by 25 million tons/year in 2035. Shell has already operated the Quest CCS facility at Scotford, which has captured and stored more than six million tons of CO2 in its six years of operation. Recently, the company also made an FID on the Northern Lights CCS project in Norway. It also took a role in the Porthos CCS project in the Netherlands.
