Shell has begun carbon capture and storage (CCS) operations at its Scotford Upgrader, in Alberta, Canada. The project is intended to trap and store over one million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) annually.

The project, dubbed "Quest," is one of the world's first large-scale CCS projects to reduce emissions from oil sands processing. The launch follows Shell's Scotford upgrader in Alberta, Canada, where the new Quest CCS project was inaugurated. Source: IEAsuccessful testing earlier this year at the site, during which the process captured and stored more than 200,000 tons of CO₂.

Quest is designed to capture one-third of the emissions from the site, which turns oil sands bitumen into synthetic crude. The CO₂ is then transported through a 65-kilometer-long pipeline and injected more than 2 km underground (see video here).

The Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint-venture owners—Shell Canada Energy (60%), Chevron Canada Limited (20%) and Marathon Oil Canada Corp. (20%)—received C$865 million ($651 million) in funding for Quest from the governments of Alberta and Canada. As part of the funding arrangements, Shell is publicly sharing information on Quest's design and processes to help advance global adoption of CCS.

Shell and the U.S. Department of Energy also plan to collaborate on field tests to validate advanced monitoring technologies for underground storage of CO₂. The technologies under consideration will be tested alongside the monitoring program already in place for Quest.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that CCS will play a key role in minimizing climate change and can account for one-sixth of required emissions reductions by 2050. According to IEA analysis, without significant deployment of CCS, more than two-thirds of current proven fossil-fuel reserves cannot be commercialized before 2050 if the increase in global temperatures is to remain below 2 degrees Celsius.