Lafarge Canada Inc. is assessing the technical and economic feasibility of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) at the Exshaw Cement Plant. The project will collaborate with strategic partners across the value chain and includes considerations for a transportation network and sequestration hub that will have future ability to link multiple industrial capture sites to a network for the transport and sequestration of CO2. A network will benefit the region and can contribute to an economic solution for decarbonizing other large emitters in the area.
The Exshaw Cement Plant is a familiar sight to travellers entering the Bow Valley at the foot of the Canadian Rockies. The plant is not co-located with developed transportation and sequestration infrastructure. While the Government of Alberta has launched a process to secure tenure and develop additional sequestration hubs, today there are no announced developments that could support the decarbonization of the Exshaw Cement Plant in the near term. The project could be the first of its kind to decarbonize industrial emissions located in the Bow Valley and southern Alberta.
CCUS is an important lever in the achievement of net-zero across the cement manufacturing industry and decarbonization strategies are complex. Capture needs to be paired with permanent removal of the CO2 from the atmosphere. Integrated source-to-sink projects will be key to positioning the Lafarge Exshaw Cement Plant to be Canada’s first net-zero cement plant.