What is CCS or CCUS?

CCS or CCUS stands for Carbon Capture and Storage or Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage. Carbon Capture is the process of capturing CO2 through several known industrial processes. Utilization can cover two issues. First using CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery, then full storage. The second type of Utilization is making products from CO2 for other industrial usage. Storage is the permanent storing of captured CO2 in depleted oil or gas fields or saline reservoirs. Storage is carefully monitored by provincial/state or government regulatory bodies to make sure there is no CO2 leakage into drinking water reservoirs or back into the atmosphere. Monitoring this process is critical to make sure this process of storage is working. Think of it as an audit trail that CO2 will remain in the ground for thousands of years.

WHY CCS OR CCUS?

By not building large emission capture plants, there is no chance to reach countries nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990.  Time is running out for accelerating global temperatures which directly affect climate change.

WHY MONEA CCS SERVICES LIMITED?

Mike Monea represents the full chain of CCS activities. He has owned, partnered in North American oil and gas companies. His oil and gas experience included acquiring land based on geology/geophysics, raising funding, drilling and completing oil and gas wells. He also ran a petroleum research company after the sale of one of his oil companies. During his tenure at the Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Saskatchewan Canada, he managed the research for the IEAGHG Weyburn project which is one of the most studied CO2 EOR projects in the world. During this time he became a Distinguished Lecturer for the Society of Petroleum Engineers for CO2 EOR. He joined SaskPower in 2008 as a Vice President and then President of Carbon Capture initiatives. From 2008-2019 he was in charge of building the world’s first carbon capture plant on a lignite coal power generating unit, the Boundary Dam Three project. During this time he also constructed a 120 tonne per day post combustion test facility in collaboration with Hitachi Japan. He was also the contact for SaskPower with the Petroleum Technology Research Centre CO2 storage site, Aquistore.

The Boundary Dam Three project became operational in 2014, shorty after, he led the International CCS Knowledge Centre in Saskatchewan Canada, a joint venture of SaskPower and BHP. He has traveled the world presenting the findings and learnings from the Boundary Dam Three project advancing CCS globally.

Mike Monea is on several CCS advisory boards around the world. He has a well rounded CCS experience that allow him to relate to companies and governments the basics of CCS to the complexities of funding to construction of these essential capture facilities. Building carbon capture facilities is just not engineering. Having built the world’s first plant involves many relationships from government, corporate, regulatory and economics. Monea CCS Services Limited can draw on may global experts for collaborative services.

Michael (Mike) Monea grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada with a passion for geology which has fueled his career path to date. He holds designations as a Professional Engineer, Professional Geoscientist and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors. His entrepreneurial vision is the root of his past successes in developing oil companies and overseeing the construction of mega-projects. Mike is the past President and CEO of the International Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Knowledge Centre a non-profit organization with BHP and SaskPower. This initiative represented a culmination of Mike’s hard work as the president of ccs initiatives at SaskPower where he was in charge of creating and building the world’s first carbon capture plant for a coal electric unit valued at $1.67 billion CDN. As a world-leading scientist, research and development is a key component in Mike’s mission to help reduce greenhouse gases through CCS technologies. His oversight of a scale-sized Carbon Capture Test Facility has ensured that progress continues to be made with international vendors on post-combustion capture systems. Progress gained in these areas can help reduce costs and advance CCS. Mike’s past experience in oil and gas has allowed him to understand the benefits of and opportunities for carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and deep saline reservoir storage. Mike secured sales of CO2 from the Boundary Dam CCS Facility to oil fields in Southern Saskatchewan. Throughout his career, Mike has understood the importance of partnerships at a local, national and international level. He has worked with most power, oil and regulatory agencies in China on CCS knowledge transfer. Mike has traveled the world speaking on CCS and is a sought-after panelist and advisor for this ground-breaking technology. Prior to his work with SaskPower and the International CCS Knowledge Centre, Mike built an oil company for China based group, was CEO of the Petroleum Technology Research Centre working on the Weyburn EOR project. His oil and gas background was highlighted, being nominated as a Distinguished Lecturer for the Society of Petroleum Engineers in the area of Enhance Oil Recovery processes. Mike is currently available for global consultation in the areas of CCS and Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery.

Building the world’s first commercial carbon capture and storage for a low emission coal plant.

I had the great honour to add to my experience from the oil and gas industry building the Boundary Dam Three project and the International Test Facility for SaskPower.   The vision of the President Pat Youswa and her board was strong.  Pat wanted to know the answer to the question “Can a coal plant reduce its emissions or should SaskPower move to other fuels like natural gas for power generation” I was hired in 2008 to head up the a division for Carbon Capture and Storage.  I had two initial tasks, one was to find if there was a market for CO2 in the oil and gas industry for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and build a business case that made technical and economic sense for the Boundary Dam Three project for SaskPower’s board of directors.  If the business case was passed by SaskPower’s board of directors, the project would be presented to the provincial government for their consideration.  The Premier of the Saskatchewan province, the Honorable Brad Wall and his cabinet approved the construction of the Boundary Dam plant April 2011.  Construction started immediately and ended in October 2014.  The journey of the world’s first commercial carbon capture plant began.

One very special tool was missing in order to build these first of a kind chemical plant.  That tool was a test facility that could evaluate different post combustion solvents for ultimate commercialization.  A partnership with Hitachi was developed to build a 120 tonne per day test facility at the Shand power station.  The Shand power station was chosen because the Boundary Dam site was very busy with construction.   Hitachi wanted to test new solvents they had designed for the carbon capture industry.  Once their testing was done at the International Test Facility, their portion of the ownership of the test unit would be turned over to SaskPower.  Hitachi remains a valued partner to this day.

Following this introduction will be a journey how this very small global power company SaskPower in a very small populated province of Saskatchewan became world known for being a first mover in carbon capture and storage.  Much like the Weyburn project which is world recognized as the most document, studied EOR project for oil recovery and CO2 storage.