Introduction to The International CCS Knowledge Centre

The International CCS Knowledge Centre’s (the “Knowledge Centre”) mission is to accelerate the global deployment of carbon capture and storage through the advancement of the understanding and use of CCS as a means of managing global GHG emissions. The not-for-profit corporation was established in 2016, by BHP and SaskPower, to provide access to the data, information and lessons learned from SaskPower’s Boundary Dam 3 facility and by incorporating the knowledge and experience from CCS projects elsewhere in the world.

SaskPower’s Boundary Dam 3 began operation on 2 October 2014 as the world’s first commercial scale coal-fired power plant incorporating amine solvent absorption carbon capture. To this day, it remains the only fully-integrated commercial scale CCS plant on a coal-fired power plant. This has demonstrated that CCS can be deployed on a commercial scale.

Sharing of this knowledge and data is expected to help promote research and reduce the cost and risk associated with new CCS projects around the world.  The Knowledge Centre facilitates, in an advisory role, based on expertise and lessons learned from the Boundary Dam experience.

Through the Knowledge Centre, power producers, industrial emitters, research bodies and others can access the information they need to consider and develop CCS as an option to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.  The Knowledge Centre also offers information to governments and NGOs that need it for the enhancement of progress of CCS technology.

High value is placed on work that is permitted to be broadly shared and would be of value to multiple parties or the industry as a whole, as it relates to its mandate. 

The sharing of lessons of CCS in operation will reduce risk, increase the chances of success and reduce cost of future developments.  Successful projects stem from three fundamental drivers, of which the Knowledge Centre can facilitate:

• Policy & Economics
• Capacity
• Financing

The deployment of CCS, especially to developing nations, can help to achieve significant goals that countries, such as Canada, have set for on the global stage through international climate change commitments.

The urgency of climate change demands action from both governments and industry. CCS can be a valuable tool in the toolbox for addressing emission reductions – alongside solutions such as renewables, energy efficiency and a number of other means.