Mercer International Inc., a global forest products company with operations in Germany, the U.S., and Canada, announces that its subsidiary, Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd.
The Svante Technologies Inc. (Svante) have commenced operation of a previously announced carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture demonstration unit at the Mercer Peace River pulp mill in northern Alberta. The pilot project is designed to evaluate Svante’s solid sorbent carbon capture technology on biogenic CO₂ emissions from the mill’s recovery boiler flue gas.
This stage builds on the previously announced Front-End Engineering and Design Phase 2 (FEL-2 / pre-FEED). That phase evaluated design, site integration, cost and risk assessment, and options for potential future commercial-scale deployment at the mill. The anticipated 6-month demonstration is intended to generate the technical and operational data needed to support the next engineering phase and longer-term planning.
“Commissioning this demonstration unit is an important and cost-efficient step for our Peace River team. It allows us to evaluate carbon capture performance in our operating environment and gather practical data on what would be required for any future scale-up,” said Bill Adams, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President, Canadian Pulp Operations. Bill continued, “The results from this on-site demonstration will help us evaluate the decarbonization potential of this technology for biogenic emissions and inform longer-term planning across our pulp operations.”
“We are pleased to see this project advance into on-site demonstration operations,” said Scott Gardner, President of Svante Development Company, Svante’s project development business unit. “Testing our technology in an operating pulp mill environment is an important step in gathering the information needed to assess future opportunities for commercial-scale carbon capture in the wider pulp and paper industry.”
Any further advancement of the project beyond the demonstration phase will be dependent on a number of factors, including, among other things, the results of the demonstration and further other economic, technical and commercial considerations.
