CO2 Solutions signs commercial agreement to deploy Quebec carbon capture unit

Quebec City’s CO2 Solutions Inc. (TSX-V: CST) has signed a definitive agreement with Fibrek General Partnership, a subsidiary of Resolute Forest Products Inc. (TSX: RFP) (NYSE: RFP), and Serres Toundra Inc. for a $7.4 million project involving the deployment of a carbon capture unit at a pulp mill in Quebec’s Saint-Félicien region as well as the commercial reuse of the captured CO2 in an adjacent greenhouse.
The unit will capture up to 30 tonnes of CO2 per day (tpd) from Resolute’s Saint-Félicien softwood kraft pulp mill, which will then be transported to Serres Toundra’s nearby vegetable greenhouse for reuse.
According to the terms of the Agreement, CO2 Solutions projects revenue of approximately $400,000 per year from a combination of the sale of captured CO2 and associated carbon credits.
“We are very proud to achieve the significant milestone of a first commercial agreement for the use of our technology alongside first-class partners. This will enable us to demonstrate the breakthrough combination of our enzymatic carbon capture process in low cost, small footprint RPB (high-intensity gas-liquid rotating packed bed mass transfer technology) equipment,” said CO2 Solutions President and CEO Evan Price. “The project is not only expected to provide us with a long-term revenue stream, but also provides a reference installation, which will be leveraged towards further scale-up of our technology and commercial deployments.”
Resolute Forest Products owns or operates over 40 pulp, paper, tissue paper and wood products facilities in the United States, Canada and South Korea, and produces a wide range of products, including market pulp, wood products, tissue paper, newsprint and specialty papers.
Its subsidiary Fibrek General Partnership owns and operates the 356,000 tonne per year Northern bleached softwood kraft pulp mill in Saint-Félicien.
The project will not only reduce carbon emissions from the pulp mill, but also reuse the CO2, benefiting both Resolute and Serres Toundra.
“We are pleased to host this innovative, first-of-its-kind project in the pulp and paper industry,” said Resolute Forest Products President and CEO Richard Garneau. “Through our participation we will reduce the carbon emissions from our Saint-Félicien mill, as well as support the scale-up of a low-cost carbon capture technology with the potential for broader deployment.”
CO2 Solutions’ design of the unit is meant to further reduce the cost of equipment and capital cost of the carbon capture unit.
“We are excited to be working with CO2 Solutions on this project,” said Serres Toundra President Éric Dubé. “We expect that, through the project, Serres Toundra will gain a lower-cost supply of CO2 while improving the environmental performance of our operations through greater integration with the pulp mill.”
The greenhouse is a $100M partnership with Resolute Forest Products, which will cover a surface area of 34 hectares in Quebec’s Lac-Saint-Jean region by 2019.
Replacing natural gas normally used to generate heat and CO2 in the greenhouse with a combination of hot water and CO2 captured from the nearby pulp mill will also increase vegetable yields.
At the end of a six-month demonstration period, Serres Toundra has agreed to purchase carbon captured by the unit for a 10-year period.
In March, Sustainable Development Technology Canada committed a non-refundable $2.4 million grant towards the project, subject to obtaining total project funding commitments, with Resolute and Serres Toundra making in-kind contributions valued at $0.3 million and $0.1 million, respectively.
CO2 Solutions is awaiting responses from potential public and private partners to complete the financing for the project.
Subject to the realization of those financing milestones, CO2 Solutions expects to complete commissioning of the CO2 capture unit by the end of 2017 and to realize first revenues from the agreement in 2018.
In February, CO2 Solutions received a $15 million grant from Alberta’s Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) to advance the commercial deployment of a carbon capture technology at a scale of 300 tonne-CO2/day for a major Alberta oil sands company.
And in January, CO2 Solutions released verified results of an enzyme-enabled carbon capture demonstration project at Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, near Montreal, producing CO2 suitable for food, beverages and other reuse applications in a reliable and cost-effective way.