Building transparent models and practical tools for early carbon-capture decisions.
PQEA is developing engineering models, analytics workflows, and scalable software prototypes to help industrial operators evaluate carbon-capture opportunities before committing significant capital.
The program supports capture and facility-integration evaluation within the broader CCUS lifecycle. It does not currently represent geological storage characterization, pipeline design, monitoring and verification, permitting, detailed design, or guaranteed technology performance.
What we are developing
The models are intended to address the difficult early questions: technical plausibility, process performance, utility requirements, integration constraints, and sensitivity to uncertain inputs.
Source and process characterization
Structured inputs for flue-gas flow and composition, CO₂ concentration, temperature, pressure, moisture, contaminants, operating hours, load variation, available utilities, and site constraints.
Capture-performance modeling
Evaluation of target capture rate, CO₂ product rate and purity, technology-performance assumptions, heat and electrical requirements, cooling demand, and compression or conditioning needs.
Preliminary sizing and integration
Early calculations for major equipment capacity, steam and power integration, heat-recovery opportunities, utility bottlenecks, facility interfaces, and preliminary operating envelopes.
Scenario and sensitivity analysis
Transparent comparison of capture percentage, CO₂ concentration, facility utilization, energy price, steam availability, process assumptions, equipment efficiency, and other decision drivers.
Questions the tools are intended to answer
Outputs are designed to improve the quality of screening and conceptual decisions—not to produce an unexplained single-point answer.
Technical fit
Is the emissions source a reasonable candidate for capture, and what additional data is required before advancing?
Capture potential
What capture rates and annual CO₂ quantities are plausible under clearly stated process and operating assumptions?
Energy and utilities
What steam, electricity, cooling, water, compression, and conditioning requirements may need to be considered?
Integration constraints
Which existing facility systems, interfaces, operating conditions, or utility limitations could control project feasibility?
Decision sensitivity
Which uncertain assumptions have the greatest effect on performance, energy demand, preliminary cost drivers, and technical viability?
Next-stage definition
What should be tested, measured, or engineered next to move from screening toward a more detailed study?
Modeling principles
The software and calculations are being built around engineering traceability rather than black-box outputs.
Transparent
Inputs, equations, data sources, assumptions, system boundaries, and limitations are explicitly documented.
Reproducible
A qualified reviewer should be able to rerun the analysis and understand how each result was produced.
Validatable
Outputs are checked against appropriate engineering relationships, references, benchmarks, or project data where available.
Scenario-driven
The tools compare operating cases and uncertainty ranges instead of presenting a single unexplained result.
Engineering-led
Analytics are built around physical process behavior, mass and energy balances, and industrial operating constraints.
Stage-appropriate
Results are clearly identified as screening, conceptual, or preliminary so they are not mistaken for detailed engineering.
Technical foundation and scope
Carbon-capture modeling requires both process understanding and disciplined digital implementation.
Engineering foundation
PQEA’s founder brings direct experience across petroleum systems, reservoir and production engineering, industrial process systems, and carbon-capture technologies. This is supported by a Master’s degree in Process Systems Engineering, P.Eng. registration, advanced analytics, and software-development capability.
Appropriate scope boundary
The current focus is capture feasibility, capture-process behavior, energy requirements, preliminary sizing, facility integration, and scenario analysis. Broader CCUS activities require specialist disciplines and project-specific partners.
Why Saskatchewan
The province provides a credible environment for developing, testing, and validating practical carbon-management capability.
Operational experience
Boundary Dam has operated carbon capture and storage since 2014, creating a substantial base of regional operating knowledge.
Testing and research infrastructure
The Shand Carbon Capture Test Facility supports testing in a commercial setting, while PTRC’s Aquistore advances CO₂ storage measurement, monitoring, and verification research.
Industrial application potential
Saskatchewan’s energy, refining, fertilizer, mining, biofuel, manufacturing, and other industrial sectors create relevant use cases for emissions-reduction modeling and technology development.
Building homegrown capability
PQEA’s long-term objective is to create and retain engineering models, computational workflows, software, and technical intellectual property in Saskatchewan—building durable capacity rather than delivering only one-off advice.
Initial application areas
Sector-specific models will be developed only where suitable data, engineering references, and validation pathways are available.
Ethanol and biofuels
Relatively concentrated process emissions can provide practical early modeling and validation opportunities.
Fertilizer and chemicals
Capture feasibility can depend on process configuration, stream characteristics, energy integration, and operating requirements.
Refining and gas processing
Multiple emissions sources and utility systems require structured source selection and integration analysis.
Power and steam generation
Capture performance must be considered alongside load variation, steam balance, electrical demand, cooling, and plant operations.
Steel, mining, and minerals
High-temperature and process-specific sources require careful technology matching and boundary definition.
Other stationary sources
The framework can be adapted where emissions data, process context, and a credible validation approach are available.
Development roadmap
The roadmap separates current engineering development from later software and collaborative pilot stages.
Stage 1 — Calculation framework
Develop transparent mass-balance, energy-demand, capture-rate, and preliminary sizing calculations with documented assumptions.
Stage 2 — Benchmarking
Compare model behavior against published studies, engineering references, available operating information, and suitable partner data.
Stage 3 — Sector templates
Create reusable configurations for selected Saskatchewan and Canadian industrial applications.
Stage 4 — Software prototype
Integrate models into a structured interface for scenarios, sensitivities, visualization, technical reporting, and version control.
Stage 5 — Collaborative pilots
Test the tools against real facility conditions with suitable industrial, research, academic, and technology partners.
Illustrative development case
A representative prototype case demonstrates how the model structure can support a decision without implying site-specific performance.
Hypothetical source definition
An industrial source emitting approximately 100,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year, with alternative capture cases at 70%, 85%, and 90%, evaluated across different operating hours and utility-availability assumptions.
Model outputs to compare
Annual captured CO₂, residual emissions, indicative solvent or process duty assumptions, steam and electricity requirements, cooling demand, compression load, preliminary equipment-capacity ranges, and sensitivity to key inputs.
Purpose of the example
The case is a model-development framework, not a project estimate. It is intended to demonstrate transparent logic, identify the data required for a real study, and show how assumptions affect early conclusions.
Potential outputs
Deliverables depend on the development stage, available information, and intended decision.
Engineering model package
Source characterization, mass and energy balance, capture scenarios, preliminary sizing calculations, and utility-demand estimates.
Decision-support analysis
Assumption register, data-quality review, sensitivity analysis, uncertainty ranges, and facility-integration constraint map.
Digital prototype and handover
Scenario dashboard or lightweight software prototype, model documentation, validation note, limitations, and implementation guidance.
Collaboration
PQEA welcomes conversations with industrial operators, technology developers, academic researchers, government programs, and engineering organizations interested in practical capture modeling, model validation, Saskatchewan use cases, and reusable engineering software.