Shell Quest Carbon Capture and Storage

Fluor provided preliminary services, front-end engineering and design, engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) for Shell's Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) Quest project. The Quest project was built on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint venture owners (including Shell, Chevron, and Marathon Oil) with support from the Canadian and Alberta Governments.

Fluor used an innovative modular execution approach for the 1.2 million tonne-per-year carbon capture facility at the Scotford Upgrader. Captured carbon dioxide is sent about 80 kilometers from the facility via underground pipeline to an underground storage site.

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Client's Challenge

Shell, on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP), a joint venture between Shell Canada (60 percent), Chevron Canada Limited (20 percent) and Marathon Oil Sands L.P. (20 percent), conducted development work on a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to help manage carbon dioxide from the Scotford Upgrader. This work led to the Shell Quest project, which captures carbon dioxide from the Scotford Upgrader and permanently stores it deep underground, preventing it from dispersing into the air.

Quest captures and stores up to 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from the Scotford Upgrader and from the Scotford Upgrader Expansion. The carbon dioxide is captured from the Scotford steam methane reformer units, which produce hydrogen for upgrading bitumen. The carbon dioxide is then transported by pipeline to an injection location near the Scotford Complex and stored approximately 2,300 metres underground in a deep geological formation.

Fluor's Solution

Fluor's scope of facilities for the project were the CO₂ Capture Facilities and related interconnecting facilities which capture the carbon dioxide from the process gas streams of the Hydrogen Manufacturing Units (HMUs) where hydrogen is produced for the conversion of bitumen to synthetic crude oil. The carbon dioxide is removed from the HMU “syngas” by contacting the mixed gas stream of methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen with activated amine. The carbon dioxide is separated from the amine in a common amine regeneration process that produces 95% pure carbon dioxide at a pressure slightly above atmospheric pressure. The purified carbon dioxide stream is then compressed to a supercritical state and dehydrated by a multi-stage compressor and then transported via pipeline for off-site disposition.

The CO₂ Capture Facilities consist of the following:

Amine absorption units located in each of the two existing HMUs of the existing Upgrader as well as the Expansion HMUA common amine regeneration unit
A CO₂ compression unit
A dehydration unit
Utilities and Offsites tie-ins
Modifications on the two existing HMUs and the Expansion 1 HMU.

Fluor's scope of services on Quest were for the provision of engineering, procurement, construction, and construction management of the CO₂ Capture Facilities, including the interconnections and scope within the existing AOSP Base Plant Upgrader and Expansion facilities.

There were 69 separate interlocking modules assembled at the jobsite. The EPC and construction management services were for the pre-FEED, FEED and EPC phases of the project. Fluor was responsible for project management, quality assurance and control plans, engineering, procurement, contracting, project controls, construction, construction management services and information management services required to achieve the mechanical completion of the CO₂ Capture Facilities and related interconnecting facilities to meet the project requirements of safety, budget, quality and schedule.

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Conclusion

The Shell Quest project in Alberta, Canada achieved a breakthrough in the reduction of heavy oil Carbon Dioxide emissions. Here Shell, with the help of Fluor, created a commercial processing facility for large-scale carbon capture and sequestration.

This landmark Quest CCS facility, co-located at Shell's existing Scotford Refinery, was designed and built using Fluor's innovative engineering and execution technology.

Fluor announced on Nov. 6, 2015, the construction of Shell's Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project was completed. The achievement was recognized at the Shell Quest carbon capture and storage start-up celebration at the site.

In 2015, Engineering News Record named the Quest Carbon Capture Facility project as a Global Best Project in the Power/Industrial category. The project was also a finalist for the 2015 Platts Global Energy Awards Engineering Project of the Year.

The Construction Owners Association of Alberta named Fluor the 2016 Best Practices Award winner for the company's modularization innovation on the Shell Quest project.