- Source: Alberta Carbon Trunk Line
The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL) is a 240-kilometre (150 mi) pipeline completed in July 2020, that collects carbon dioxide (CO2) in the province of Alberta and transports it to various subsurface storage complexes and depleted oil reservoirs around the province for sequestration and enhanced oil recovery applications. Constructed, owned, and operated by Wolf Midstream, the ACTL sources its CO2 from a fertilizer manufacturing plant in Redwater, and the North West Redwater Partnership bitumen upgrading plant using gasification. It will initially funnel the collected CO2 to Clive, a field discovered in the 1950s and currently owned by Enhance Energy which produces about 300 barrels per day.
Expected specifications of captured CO2
The ACTL is expected to be the world's largest carbon capture and storage project. It will store 14.6 million tonnes (16.1×10^6 short tons) of CO2 per year, six times more than the Weyburn project in Saskatchewan. Initially, the project should collect and transport 4,600–5,100 tonnes (5,100–5,600 short tons) of CO2 per day and is expected to expand to 40,000 tonnes (44,000 short tons) of CO2 per day.
Timeline
Plans for the ACTL began in 2004, but were put on hold due to the Great Recession in 2008. However, the ACTL was restarted after the recession with a license for construction and operation issued in April 2011. The ACTL was originally planned to start production in 2013, and delayed to 2015, and then finally delayed further. The pipeline was constructed by Wolf Midstream between 2018 and 2020 and began operations in 2020.
Economics
The project is part of a larger carbon capture and storage development program which includes the construction of additional upstream and downstream infrastructure, which in aggregate has been estimated to cost CAN$1.2 billion but will find approximately CAN$558 million from several energy funds and carbon capture technology initiatives. Over 15 years, the Alberta province will be funding the project with CAN$495 million from the Alberta CCS Fund. The Canadian government is giving a total of CAN$63 million: CAN$30 million from the Clean Energy Fund and CAN$33 million from ecoENERGY Technology Initiative.