There are many different methods of carbon capture and storage (CCS)but the most common being explored in Canada is geo-sequestration where carbon emissions are captured from industrial facilities such as a coal fired electricity plant or oil sands upgrader facility (that serves to make synthetic crude oil from bitumen) and then piped and injected underground for storage.   

The feasibility of carbon storage is limited to regions that have the appropriate geological formations. Western Canada offers excellent opportunities for CCS because coal generation and oil sands production are located relatively near large storage sites that have depleted oil and gas reservoirs.   

Canada and other countries including China and the United States have placed a high priority on CCS.

Currently, the federal government along with certain provinces is investing in large scale CCS demonstration projects; most of the activity is located in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.^[1]

Many witnesses appearing before the committee stressed that CCS must be part of the solution because fossil fuels will continue to dominate worldwide energy demand for some time to come.  

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[1] The federal government committed over $1 billion towards CCS projects through various projects including $466 million in Clean Energy Fund, $240 million for Saskatchewan’s Boundary Dam and $151 million under the eco ENERGY initiative. Alberta is very active in this area, it has invested $2 billion to fund four large scale demonstration projects: two are oil sands related (Shell Quest capture and storage of project and the Energy Enhanced project that will transport C0₂  by pipeline, the third is a post-combustion coal fired power project and the fourth is a coal gasification project. Saskatchewan is the site of one of the largest CO₂ storage projects in the world: Weyburn-Middale C0₂ Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) project. British Columbia is also involved in large scale CCS projects via Spectra Energy’s Fort Nelson CCS demonstration project which is exploring the feasibility of geological sites to sequester carbon.

:Carbon capture and storage