Deep Sky, a Montreal-based startup interested in large-scale carbon capture, and Exterra Solutions Carbone, a company that has developed an innovative carbon dioxide sequestration system, are collaborating on a project that could change the environmental gives to the country.

One captures the CO2, the other sequesters it – bounty hunter and carbon sheriff.

“Deep Sky was looking for a sequestration technology and we were looking for a CO2 supplier. It was a very good meeting! says Olivier Dufresne, president of Exterra.

They are joining forces to set up a pilot plant that will use mine tailings to remove CO2 – a technology developed by Exterra.

The facility, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2024, will sequester up to 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and validate the carbon removal solution developed by Exterra. It will probably be built in Thetford Mines.

An ambitious project for two companies that are less than two years old.

Deep Sky was founded in September 2022 by Joost Ouwerkerk and Fred Lalonde, co-founders of travel products app Hopper, and Laurence Tosi, managing partner at investment firm WestCap.

“We are people who know nothing about the climate, nothing,” admits Fred Lalonde, still president of Hopper. Sensitive to the environment, in 2019 he introduced a tree planting program to offset the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of his customers.

Funded in particular by Investissement Québec, Deep Sky aims to unite and put to work the best carbon capture and sequestration technologies. The company still has only a handful of employees, but wants to attract more and more experts into its orbit. On August 3, it announced the hiring of scientist Phil de Luna as director of carbon technologies and director of engineering.

Deep Sky wants to become the first carbon sequestration company on the planet to work at gigatonne scale – a billion tonnes, no less.

“Since November, no matter where on Earth, if there’s someone developing technology to capture or sequester CO2, let’s go,” says Fred Lalonde. We show up and in most cases we buy licenses or capacity. »

The company has purchased all of Exterra’s landfill capacity for the next year. “These are people who, instead of writing yet another theory paper, found a shed and then started crushing rock to see if it worked,” he said.

Exterra Solutions Carbone is only slightly older: it was founded in December 2021 by David Fennell and Olivier Dufresne. A mining engineer by training, Olivier Dufresne was born in Rouyn-Noranda.

“We realized that the natural carbonation of rocks that react with CO2 in the atmosphere is a reaction that is very slow, but that we could very well do it quickly with processes that already exist today,” he continues. . We embarked on this mission. »

Exterra plans to use mine tailings from the Thetford Mines and Val-des-Sources regions, which are partly made up of serpentine.

“We come and extract the magnesium or calcium from this rock and dissolve it in water,” he describes. The solids are then removed and CO2 is introduced into this solution. »

At the outlet of this reactor, the CO2 is amalgamated in the form of carbonate. This whitish powder can then be buried in disused mine shafts.

The process also offers collateral benefits.

“With our process, we destroy 100% of the asbestos fibers”, informs Olivier Dufresne. In addition, “we are currently working on the integration of the production of a nickel concentrate that we will be able to extract from these residues”.

Fred Lalonde compares the process to Icelandic projects for injecting CO2 into volcanic soil. “Instead of bringing the CO2 to the volcanic rock, we bring the volcanic rock to the CO2,” he says.

“The magic with that is that for a ton of volcanic rock, you capture a little less than a ton of CO2. What is less magical is the cost, concedes Mr. Lalonde. It is much more expensive because rocks are moved and crushed rather than injected. But the huge advantage is that Exterra already has all the permits. While no injection well has yet been approved in Canada or Quebec, this process is available now. »

Hence certain ambitions.

Already tested in the laboratory, Exterra’s technology will be proven in early 2024 at the Carrefour d’innovation sur les Matériaux de la MRC des Sources (CIMMS) at a rate of 100 tonnes per year, with CO2 captured in an ethanol plant. .

The second phase of validation is the subject of the agreement with Deep Sky, which will supply the 1,000 tons of CO2 that will be processed in the plant set up next summer.

“This demonstration plant will then be transformed into an R&D center where we can receive different types of mineral tailings such as nickel mine tailings, steel slag, etc., to optimize operational parameters, which will enable the use of our technology in other sites”, informs Olivier Dufresne.

“We see our technology being used at all sites where there is tailings production. In Quebec, for example, we have 2 billion tonnes of mine tailings that are of the type to receive CO2, which would give us more than 625 million tonnes of carbon storage capacity. »

Deep Sky also has vast ambitions.

“In the longer term, the vision is to export all over the world,” says Fred Lalonde.

Deep Sky announced in July an agreement with the Californian start-up Captura for the creation of an ocean carbon capture station in eastern Quebec.

Another site would be devoted to the capture of CO2 in the atmosphere.

In an end-to-end integrated organization, he hopes to eventually capture and sequester some 250,000 tonnes of CO2 per year in a plant that would require an investment of 300 to 500 million.

“That would make Quebec the world capital of CO2 removal,” he said. Funding for the first phase has already been completed. It’s going to be at least 50 million. »

He thinks big, undeniably.

“In Quebec, we have geology. We have hydroelectric surpluses, despite what we have heard in the media. We have wind potential and we are neighbors of Ontario, which has a huge nuclear surplus. We are still relatively close to Alberta where we could sequester on a large scale, in the trillion tonnes. Canada is in fact the Saudi Arabia of CO2 sequestration. »

Today Thetford Mines, tomorrow the world.