Shell Quest Carbon Capture and Storage

Shell, on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP), a joint venture between Shell Canada (60 percent), Chevron Canada Limited (20 per cent) and Marathon Oil Sands L.P. (20 percent), conducted development work on a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to help manage carbon dioxide from the Scotford Upgrader. This work led to the Shell Quest project, which will capture carbon dioxide from the Scotford Upgrader and permanently store it deep underground, preventing it from dispersing into the air.

Quest will capture and store up to 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from the Scotford Upgrader and from the Scotford Upgrader Expansion. The carbon dioxide will be captured from the Scotford steam methane reformer units, which produce hydrogen for upgrading bitumen. The carbon dioxide would then be transported by pipeline to an injection location near the Scotford Complex and stored approximately 2,300 metres underground in a deep geological formation.

Fluor’s scope of facilities for the project is the CO₂ Capture Facilities and related interconnecting facilities which will capture the carbon dioxide from the process gas streams of the Hydrogen Manufacturing Units (HMUs) where hydrogen is produced for the conversion of bitumen to synthetic crude oil. The carbon dioxide is removed from the HMU “syngas” by contacting the mixed gas stream of methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen with activated amine. The carbon dioxide is separated from the amine in a common amine regeneration process that produces 95% pure carbon dioxide at a pressure slightly above atmospheric pressure. The purified carbon dioxide stream will then be compressed to a supercritical state and dehydrated by a multi-stage compressor and then transported via pipeline for off -site disposition.

The CO₂ Capture Facilities consist of the following:

• Amine absorption units located in each of the two existing HMUs of the existing Upgrader as well as the Expansion HMUA common amine regeneration unit.
• A CO₂ compression unit.
• A dehydration unit.
• Utilities and Offsites tie-ins.
• Modifications on the two existing HMUs and the Expansion 1 HMU.

Fluor’s scope of services on Quest is for the provision of engineering, procurement, construction, and construction management of the CO₂ Capture Facilities, including the interconnections and scope within the existing AOSP Base Plant Upgrader and Expansion facilities.

Fluor will use its patent-pending and innovative 3rd Gen Modular Execution^SM approach for the 1.1 million tonne-per-year carbon capture facility at the Scotford Upgrader. Captured carbon dioxide will be sent about 80 kilometres from the facility via underground pipeline to an underground storage site.

The engineering, procurement, construction, and construction management services are for the pre-FEED, FEED and EPC phases of the project. Fluor is responsible for project management, quality assurance and control plans, engineering, procurement, contracting, project controls, construction, construction management services and information management services required to achieve the mechanical completion of the CO₂ Capture Facilities and related interconnecting facilities to meet the project requirements of safety, budget, quality and schedule.