Siemens Energy and Canada’s TC Energy have signed an agreement to build a first-of-its-kind waste heat-to-power facility in Alberta.

The plant will have the capacity to capture waste heat from a gas-fired turbine at a pipeline compression station and convert it into emissions-free power. The energy generated by the facility will feed the grid. This will power more than 10,000 homes and offsetting 44,000t of greenhouse gases annually.

Under the agreement, Siemens Energy will build, own, and operate the facility. Siemens Energy Industrial Applications Products senior vice-president Arja Talakar said: “This pilot project is a testament not only to our extensive capabilities but also to Siemens Energy’s broader commitment to bring new technologies to market that can support decarbonization in the oil and gas industry.

“We are proud to partner with TC Energy to build this first-of-its-kind facility and look forward to scaling the technology to other installations in the coming years.”

The facility will use Siemens Energy’s heat recovery process technology, licensed under Echogen Intellectual Property, and is based on an advanced Rankine Cycle. It uses supercritical carbon dioxide as the working fluid that converts waste heat into power.

As per the agreement, Siemens Energy has the option to transfer the ownership back to TC Energy at a later date.

The project is also supported by $6.3m (C$8m) in funding from Emissions Reduction Alberta’s Industrial Efficiency Challenge. The facility will be commissioned toward the end of next year.

TC Energy Power & Storage senior vice-president and president Corey Hessen said: “The agreement with Siemens Energy on this initiative exemplifies TC Energy’s long history of embracing innovation and leading-edge technology in its operations.

“We are committed to integrating sustainable energy solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our footprint and look forward to having this operational at one of our compressor stations.”

TC Energy has started evaluating options to deploy the technology at other compressor station sites, with the potential to generate 300MW of emissions-free power.