Mercer International, a forest products company with operations in Europe and North America, has begun operating a carbon capture demonstration unit at its Peace River pulp mill in northern Alberta, marking an initial but notable step in the industry’s search for practical decarbonization tools.
The pilot project evaluates a solid sorbent system developed by Svante Technologies that is designed to capture carbon dioxide from recovery boiler exhaust, emissions largely associated with biomass rather than fossil fuels.
The six-month demonstration follows an earlier engineering and design phase that assessed how the equipment could be integrated into the mill, along with cost estimates and potential risks. The current focus is on collecting operational data, including capture performance, reliability and maintenance requirements, under day to day mill conditions.
Company executives described the effort as intentionally incremental. By running the system on site, Mercer aims to understand what a future scale up would entail before committing to further investment.
“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.
For Svante, the project provides an opportunity to validate its technology in a continuous industrial environment, a key milestone for any carbon capture developer seeking broader adoption.
Pulp and Paper show promise for carbon capture
Interest in carbon capture and removal is growing across the pulp and paper sector as companies look beyond energy efficiency and fuel switching.
The couple of years have identified paper and pulp mills as promising early candidates because they produce relatively concentrated, steady streams of biogenic CO2. Capturing and permanently storing that carbon can potentially deliver net negative emissions.
Still, challenges remain, including high capital costs, the need for transport and storage infrastructure, and uncertainty around long term policy incentives. Demonstration projects like the one at Peace River are intended to close the gap between technical promise and commercial reality.
Read more: Svante Launches First-Ever Gigafactory For Carbon Capture & Removal Filters
