Capturing Carbon to Produce Nanotubes
Funded through ERA’s Shovel Ready Challenge in 2021, Capital Power Corp. proposed a carbon conversion centre to capture carbon from their Genesee power facility’s flue gas and transform it into carbon nanotubes, a highly valuable product that can be used to enhance material properties in concrete, construction materials and more.
The project leveraged CarbonCorp’s proprietary technology, previously supported by ERA. As an investor in CarbonCorp, Capital Power sought to commercialize their technology. The project was also being conducted in parallel with the ERA-funded front-end engineering design (FEED) study at Genesee. It was ultimately cancelled and put on hold along with Capital Power’s other CCUS-related endeavours in 2024. As of May 2025, Carbon Corp announced the corporation will be formally dissolving.
Assessing Market Viability
Phase one of the Genesee project was meant to have an annual production capacity of 2,500 tonnes of carbon nanotubes, and Capital Power planned to expand this by up to 7,500 tonnes through future development phases. Capital Power planned to complete detailed engineering, procure the equipment, followed by constructing and then construct and operate the facility. Capital Power advanced the detailed engineering and design; however, the project was ultimately terminated. Despite this outcome, the project still provided valuable insights into the marketability and commercialization path for this technology from Capital Power.
What’s next?
Since pausing its carbon capture and carbon conversion initiatives, Capital Power has pivoted instead to explore small modular reactors in partnership with Ontario Power Generation. They have indicated publicly that they would be willing to explore carbon capture again in the future if the economics and technology improve. Additionally, the company has been actively involved in sharing lessons learned from its carbon capture FEED study. For example, with support from Capital Power and others, ERA and the International Carbon Capture and Storage Knowledge Center compiled lessons learned from all the projects funded through its Carbon Capture Kickstart funding call. The lessons were compiled into a public Lessons Learned Report, which was presented at IEAGHG’s Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT)-17 Conference co-hosted by ERA and shared with the IEA’s Carbon Capture and Storage Cost Network in March 2025.