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Post combustion carbon capture technology will be piloted at Strathcona resources' Lindbergh thermal oil operation near Cold Lake, Alta.Supplied

In all his years in the oil and gas sector, Strathcona Resources Ltd. president and chief executive Rob Morgan has never seen so much co-operation between companies as they scramble to reduce emissions and remain competitive in a global market that’s focusing on net-zero.

On Wednesday, his company received $7-million from clean-tech investor Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) to help fund a $30-million project to capture carbon from natural gas fired turbines used at its Lindbergh oil sands facility near Cold Lake, Alta. It’s expected to permanently sequester underground about 95 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from the turbines, capturing about 37,000 tonnes per year.

“We think it is a game changer for the industry,” Mr. Morgan said Wednesday.

The project is one of 14 emissions-reducing initiatives selected by ERA for a share in $60-million from the province’s carbon tax on large emitters. Some of the projects are ready to go, others are earlier in their development phase. But if all are deployed, combined they will reduce Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions by around 700,000 tonnes by 2030 and create about 1,700 new jobs, ERA says.

The funding “can fundamentally transform our energy and emissions footprint and build our economy at the same time,” ERA chief executive Justin Riemer said Wednesday.

In the case of Strathcona, one of North America’s largest private oil and gas companies, Mr. Morgan said the novel technology will become a demonstration project that will generate both electricity and steam for oil sands operations, while significantly reducing emissions in oil production.

“This is a promising decarbonization solution suited for various industrial applications, including Alberta’s oil sands resources,” he said.

All ERA funding recipients are required to produce a final outcomes report including lessons learned, greenhouse gas reductions, job creation as well as other environmental, economic and social benefits. Shared publicly, it can be used by other companies looking to lower their own carbon footprints.

But the projects in the latest round of ERA funding aren’t limited to the traditional oil and gas sector. They cover a swath of industries in the province, from forestry to energy, transportation, construction and agriculture.

CarbonIP, for example, will receive $1.8-million for a project converting forestry waste to anodes for use in lithium-ion batteries, and Canadian Forest Products Ltd. $10-million for a technology to use geothermal energy at forestry operations.

Canadian Pacific Railway CP-T will get $7-million to convert diesel-electric trains to be powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and Litus Inc. $600,000 for a portable demonstration plant in Alberta that will extract lithium from brine sources.

McCain Foods will receive $1.65-million for an electric boiler as part of a $600-million expansion of its potato processing plant in Coaldale, Alta., ZS2 Technologies $2-million to produce magnesium-based cement and Replenish Nutrients $7-million to help build a zero-waste, regenerative fertilizer plant near the small Alberta hamlet of Debolt.

The announcement brings ERA’s total commitment to emissions-reduction projects to $910-million.

The 260 projects it has helped fund since 2009 have drawn about $7.3-billion in public and private investment and will result in an estimated cumulative greenhouse gas reduction of 108 million tonnes by 2050, Mr. Riemer said.

Part of ERA’s mandate is to help forward-thinking industries and technology developers to get their best ideas to market.

“We’ve seen a significant amount of interest in our funds, and our funds have actually unlocked other capital invested in from the private sector,” Mr. Riemer said.

“We are one of the catalytic investors in a lot of projects that are essential to moving those projects further, faster than they would move without our support.”

Each of the 14 projects selected for funding will be “absolutely key” in helping Alberta reach its goal of reducing emissions to net-zero by 2050 and securing the competitiveness of new and existing industries in the province, Alberta’s Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said Wednesday.

“Whether a facility is in the early testing stages or approaching final commercial projects, we have focused on advancing technologies with real practical potential,” she said.

“Sometimes this means pursuing tried and true technology. And sometimes it means taking a chance on brand new technology solutions, both of which end up leading to incredible environmental and economic rewards.”

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