Shell Canada Products, a subsidiary of Shell plc, has announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) for Polaris, a carbon capture project at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park, Scotford in Alberta, Canada. Polaris is designed to capture approximately 650,000 tonnes of CO2 annually from the Shell-owned Scotford refinery and chemicals complex.
In addition to the Polaris FID, Shell today announced FID to proceed with the Atlas Carbon Storage Hub in partnership with ATCO EnPower. The first phase of Atlas will provide permanent underground storage for CO2 captured by the Polaris project.
“Carbon capture and storage is a key technology to achieve the Paris Agreement climate goals,” said Huibert Vigeveno, Shell’s Downstream, Renewable and Energy Solutions Director. “The Polaris and Atlas projects are important steps in reducing emissions from our own operations.”
Polaris and Atlas will build on the success of the Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at Scotford, which has safely captured and stored more than nine million tonnes of CO2 since 2015 that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere.
Polaris (100% Shell-owned) will have the potential to reduce Scope 1 CO2 emissions at Shell’s Scotford refinery by capturing and storing up to 40% and by up to 22% at the chemicals complex.
Shell is a 50/50 partner with ATCO EnPower in the Atlas Carbon Storage Hub. The first phase of Atlas will provide permanent underground storage for CO2 captured by the Polaris project.
CO2 emissions captured by Polaris will be sent to the Atlas Hub via an approximately 22-kilometre pipeline to two storage wells. CO2 will be stored there approximately two kilometres underground in the Basal Cambrian Sands, the same formation used to successfully store CO2 from the Quest CCS facility.
Both projects are expected to begin operations toward the end of 2028.
