Photo: Construction has begun on the Origins CCS Hub near Clive, with initial storage capacity of up to 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Carbon Capture image representation / Unsplash

Construction has started on a central Alberta carbon-storage project designed to hold up to 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year during its first phase.

Enhance Energy held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the Origins Carbon Capture and Storage Hub in the Clive area of Lacombe County.

The company expects the hub to begin operating in January 2027. The schedule and storage volumes remain project forecasts while construction and customer connections proceed.

The project is supported by two $5-million grants from Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Innovation Program.

Alberta previously selected the development as an approved carbon-sequestration hub. That provincial process gives the operator the right to evaluate and develop underground pore space within a defined area, subject to regulatory requirements.

Carbon capture and storage separates carbon dioxide from industrial operations, transports it by pipeline and injects it deep underground for permanent storage.

The Origins hub will connect to Alberta’s existing carbon dioxide pipeline network. Initial customers are expected to include heavy industrial operations in the Alberta Industrial Heartland northeast of Edmonton.

Potential users identified by the company include cement, oil and gas, power generation, hydrogen and petrochemical operations.

The network is designed to expand beyond the initial 1.5-million-tonne capacity. Enhance says later phases could serve additional facilities in central and southern Alberta.

The project is being developed beside an existing carbon-storage operation near Clive. Enhance reports that facility has stored more than nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2020.

Carbon-storage projects require detailed geological assessment and continuing measurement after injection begins. Operators must show that the underground formation can contain the carbon dioxide and must monitor the site for migration or leakage.

Its overall effect depends on how much carbon dioxide is captured, the energy required to operate the system and whether storage remains secure over time.

The Origins project places another large piece of carbon-management infrastructure in central Alberta, close to farms, rural roads and existing oilfield services. Its first measurable milestones will be completion of construction, customer connections and the start of injection now expected in January.