About Heartland's sustainability

Committed to sustainable solutions

From day one, we determined that sustainability would be built into every aspect of our operations long before ground was broken on Heartland Petrochemical Complex. Deliberate design and technology choices paired with local propane feedstock will help Heartland generate an expected 65 per cent less greenhouse gas than average global PP facilities around the world, and 35 per cent less compared to average North American facilities, according to an independent study commissioned by Inter Pipeline.

Reducing emissions and freshwater use

HPC is designed to use by-product ethane and hydrogen to fuel power production in the cogeneration unit (CUB) to make up approximately 32 per cent of the operation’s total fuel usage, reducing the total carbon footprint by approximately 130,000 tonnes annually. Our CUB also uploads approximately 50 megawatts to the public grid annually. This power, produced with natural gas as a feedstock, provides low emissions power to the public grid in the region. Additionally, our use of air cooling instead of water cooling in the operation means we will use 80 per cent less make-up water.

Propane dehydrogenation

Our feedstock is another factor in reducing emissions at HPC. From a well to plant gate basis, our polypropylene carbon footprint is projected to be one of the smallest in the industry due to our propane dehydrogenation process, a vastly cleaner process compared to other technologies and processes in the polypropylene industry.

Diversifying end use, reducing carbon

HPC takes more than 22,000 barrels of Canadian propane feedstock per day and turns it into polypropylene pellets, removing the potential for the carbon in propane to be available as a combustion fuel source. Compared to the conventional life cycle of Canadian propane, our process represents a ~44 per cent net reduction in GHG emissions, 0.9-1.0 million tonnes of CO2e/year, in comparison to the standard uses for Canadian propane, across the 25-year operating life of the complex, according to a 2020 lifecycle assessment of GHG emissions conducted by AFARA. This is equivalent to removing roughly 217,000 passenger vehicles from our roads each year or 100 per cent of GHG emissions that Inter Pipeline produced from its Canadian operations in 2019.

Follow our progress

We’re pleased to share details about progress we’re making on our sustainability journey: From reducing emissions and fresh water uptake in our operations, to supporting research that finds ways for us to use post-consumer recycled plastics in new and innovative ways.   

Read our Impact Report

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Heartland Petrochemical Complex Drone Footage

Propane Dehydrogenation timelapse

Watch our Propane Dehydrogenation unit construction build from day one.

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Propane Dehydrogenation timelapse