St. Clair  company plans five projects to improve air quality

Heather Wright/The Independent

It is being touted as the biggest project ever undertaken in Shell Canada’s 75 year history at the Sarnia site. 

Five separate projects including a new a “engineered solution” to meet Ontario’s regulations to cut sulphur dioxide emissions are either underway or waiting for final approval according to Shell Canada executives speaking to St. Clair Township council Oct. 20.

The province first introduced changes to cut sulphur dioxide emissions around the petroleum plants in St. Clair Township in 2018. In 2022, it extended the timeline to 2028 for the plants to find a solution to the problem. The emissions have been linked to premature death and increase asthma rates in Lambton County.

Anthony Mancusi, the project manager for sulphur dioxide reduction project on the plant’s cracking unit, says it alone will cut emissions by 60 per cent. “That’s substantial,” he said.

“This is probably the largest single capital project –  I would say probably it is the largest single capital project that Shell (Sarnia) has ever undertaken,” he told council,. “So it’s massive. A lot of pots, a lot of pods, a lot of pans, a lot of pieces of equipment.”

Part of the existing unit is already under demolition to make way for the new caustic scrubber. “It is approximately 230 foot tall. It’s going to come in three four segments,” Mancusi said.

That tower is expected to be about 250 feet tall, Mancusi said. About 90 per cent of the new cracking unit will be built off site and brought to the area for the March 2026 turnaround, he added. Construction will continue until the 2028 spring turnaround. 

“We will be doing what we need to do to optimize and make sure that we are, for sure, compliant for the Jan 1, 2029.”

Mancusi says Shell will make a “final investment decision on the project in January” adding some of the demolition work is already underway. 

While the cracker unit is the largest of the projects, Shell plans four others which will cut emissions. Mike Parkhouse told council Shell will be introducing biofuels like vegetable oil into one tanks on site “to reduce the carbon intensity of gasoline that is emitted from vehicles as they drive down the street. 

“Just by adding one per cent, it probably will take approximately 13,000 cars off the road,” Parkhouse said.

“There’s no change to the to the tank, to the infrastructure at site. Everything is already there. It’s just we will now be adding this new material that we’ve never had. So, it does mark a change for our for our site, moving to a little more more heavily into these renewable content materials.”

The company is also planning a new geodesic roof on a tank. The roof now is external. Parkhouse says the internal roof planned will reduce the vapour emissions out of the tank by about 7.5 per cent. The project is already under construction. 

Shell is also working on a plan to put bio feedstocks, like oils from soybeans, corn or vegetables, into a tanker to mix with oil to create a cleaner burning vehicle fuel. 

“The material will be taken in by rail…two to four rail cars per day from our neighbour to the south of us (VIP)  and we’ll be pipelining it directly into Tank 60 which would then be fed into that cracking unit,” he said. That project is expected to be complete in 2027.

A vapour recovery unit is also in the works to reduce benzene emissions, common to petroleum plants and dangerous to humans. “We had a pressure relief valve, so now, we’ll be drawing off material from that tank and be putting it through banks of carbon to capture that material,” Parkhouse said.

St. Clair Township councillors were impressed with the scope of the work. Brad Langstaff wanted to know what Shell’s total investment would be. Parkhouse and Mancusi did not have the figure available, nor were they able to say how many construction jobs might be created with the work.

“It seems like an impressive investment that we appreciate. And it seems like you not only will create jobs, but definitely secure some for the future, much past 2029,” Langstaff said.

“It’s great to see the investment coming in,” said Mayor Jeff Agar. “All the upgrades are going to only help the environment down the road.”