CDR Project Developer Interview - Carbon Alpha

'Unbound Showcase' is a globe-spanning series of interviews with pioneers of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). We’re questioning innovators, business leaders, policymakers, academics, buyers and investors taking on the challenge of our lifetime - gigaton-scale carbon removal from the earth's atmosphere.

Today’s interview is with Patrick Elliott , Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of, Carbon Alpha . Carbon Alpha is devoted to building a sustainable future, offering top-tier, scalable carbon solutions. They specialise in developing cutting-edge CDR projects and industrial CCS solutions across Canada.

"What is Carbon Alpha, and what was the inspiration that led to its creation?"

Patrick Elliott - Carbon Alpha is focused on developing CDR projects in western Canada and is a fully integrated project developer headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Our team comprises geologists, geophysicists, reservoir engineers, development and facility engineers, planners, and finance people. We have the skills to develop all aspects of CDR projects and take a bottom-up approach, from evaluating and developing the geologic storage, MRV planning, transportation, capture facilities, regulatory, and stakeholder engagement to managing the carbon removal credit process.  

We started Carbon Alpha in 2021 because we recognised the importance of bringing our skill sets from the upstream energy industry to the CDR and CCS development space. We spent the first two years focused on sizeable industrial decarbonisation projects, which allowed us to build the team and our systems and refine our practices. However, as we started working on our North Star BECCS project, we realised the importance of carbon removals in directly removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere, which really excited us. We felt there was an opportunity for us to make a real impact on removing carbon from the atmosphere. Developing subsurface carbon storage assets is complicated and involves managing risks and stakeholders and the skills brought from the upstream energy industry are important to deliver safe, effective, and impactful CDR projects. 

"What role do you see CCS and CDR playing in achieving net-zero emissions, especially for hard-to-decarbonise industries?"

Patrick Elliott - Energy transition will take time, and for some industries, such as airlines, it will be very hard to decarbonise significantly. CDR provides legitimate opportunities for those industries to decarbonise by providing carbon removal offsets. There are leaders in those industries who have recognised the benefits of working with suppliers to provide high-quality carbon removal credits from projects. This is where the carbon registries and auditors can play an impactful role in providing purchasers with confidence in the high-quality carbon removal marketplace.

As a technology, CCS also plays an important role in decarbonising existing heavy industries that depend on hydrocarbons for power and have few operational alternatives. CCS is a safe and proven technology with over 40 operational facilities globally and over 300 planned to come online. CCS has been recognised as an important tool to reduce concentrated point source emissions and will allow these important industries to significantly improve their carbon footprint, while still providing the products society demands.  

"Beyond technical expertise, what specific skills and experience do you consider most valuable for your team when successfully executing carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects?"

Patrick Elliott - There are two important aspects to advancing projects beyond the technical skills required that Carbon Alpha can provide. The first is ensuring social acceptance for the project and that you can deliver projects safely and responsibly. That means working with local communities to understand a diverse range of perspectives on how any project may impact them and incorporating accommodations to address local community concerns. At the same time, project development also brings many benefits to communities that they might not otherwise have an opportunity to enjoy, which also needs to be described.

The other important aspect is the fully integrated nature of Carbon Alpha’s approach to project development. Not only has the majority of the team worked together for over ten years, but it’s also the way we integrate the workflow of all aspects of the project.  For instance, our subsurface team consists of Geologists, Geophysicists, Reservoir Engineers, Drilling Engineers, and Completion Engineers who all collaborate and design the subsurface strategies with MMV requirements as the guiding framework, ensuring our design is consistent with the needs of the carbon credit registries, auditors and regulators. Beyond that, our development planners and financial modellers optimise our choices and activities to generate the best outcomes. Finally, our operations team has decades of experience constructing and operating the equipment to enable CDR.

"Can you share an example of a CDR project Carbon Alpha is developing?"

Patrick Elliott - Our flagship BECCS project is called North Star, and it is in partnership with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC), located in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. North Star builds upon the existing MLTC Bioenergy Centre by adding carbon capture and storage (CCS). The bioenergy centre generates renewable power fueled entirely by waste biomass, such as bark and sawdust, from MLTC's integrated sawmill and sustainably managed local forestry operations. Forestry biomass consumes carbon dioxide (CO2) over its lifetime. By capturing the biogenic CO2 emissions from the MLTC Bioenergy Centre and injecting it deep underground, the project effectively removes CO2 from the atmosphere safely and permanently, generating high-quality CDR credits.

"How do Carbon Alpha’s projects benefit local communities?"

Patrick Elliott - The North Star BECCS project will be majority Indigenous-owned by our partner @MLTC, whose revenues will support the MLTC's programs and services. These include child and family services, education, and health and youth development programs for the nine member-first nations comprising the MLTC.

The project's workforce and procurement requirements will create employment, education, and training opportunities for the community of Meadow Lake and other surrounding regions. Construction of the Project is estimated to provide significant labour income and is expected to create up to 125 construction jobs and 12 permanent jobs once operational.

"What challenges, from an industry perspective, should we be aware of in the next 18 months to achieve the scale necessary to hit 2030 targets? It’s just 24 business quarters away."

Patrick Elliott - There is a huge amount of work to do to develop gigaton or even megaton-scale carbon removals. Developing projects is time-intensive and complicated. There are many stakeholders involved, and each has concerns to be addressed: your partners, the local community, governments, regulators, investors, the carbon removal markets, etc. Each of these stakeholders is required to move projects forward, but the ones with the biggest impact are the carbon removal credit buyers and investors who provide the necessary resources and confidence to develop CDR projects.  We expect that as project development methodologies become more established and transparent, prospective carbon removal credit purchasers will have greater confidence that their dollars are having the intended impact of offsetting their emissions. The CDR marketplace must establish that confidence so more buyers and, importantly, investors can come to the market to support the developers who need the capital to advance these important projects.  

Unbound Summits’ mission focuses on unrivalled connections, unmatched insights, and unbound CDR opportunities. You can learn more about Carbon Alpha’s unique approach to CDR and CCS at carbonalpha.com.