Heartland Area Redwater storage Project (HARP)

The Heartland Area Redwater Project has three phases: phase one will evaluate in detail the size and suitability of the site for CO2 capture and storage, phase two will involve the drilling of a well to collect more detailed data, while phase three is planned to demonstrate actual CO2 injection and storage.

This project is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of safe CO2 storage in the Redwater Leduc Reef, situated northeast of Edmonton, Alberta. This site is located close to the Alberta Industrial Heartland region, where there are a number of large industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions, including chemical and fertilizer plants and several oil sands upgraders that are operating, being built or in the planning stages. The Redwater Leduc Reef is also strategically located along a straight-line path between Fort McMurray and Edmonton, a potential route for a CO2 pipeline from Fort McMurray. Preliminary work estimates the total storage capacity of the saline aquifer portion of the reef to be one gigaton of CO2.

Led by ARC Energy Trust and the Alberta Research Council Inc., the Heartland Area Redwater Project will evaluate the potential for the Redwater Leduc Reef complex to store as much as 1,000 Megatonnes of CO2.  This could accommodate more than 20 years worth of CO2 emissions from the large emitting facilities existing and planned for the Industrial Heartland Area.

“We’ve looked at the geology across the province, and we feel this area has ideal attributes for a CO2 capture and storage project,” says Dr. William Gunter, the Alberta Research Council’s principal scientist for CCS.

$1.8 million first phase is being funded by ARC Energy Trust, the Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).  Phase one is scheduled to be completed in spring 2009.

More information and Press Release