Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage

Example of BECCS: Diagram of bioenergy power plant with carbon capture and storage.[1]

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is the process of extracting bioenergy from biomass and capturing and storing the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is produced.

Greenhouse gas emissions from bioenergy can be low because when vegetation is harvested for bioenergy, new vegetation can grow that will absorb CO2 from the air through photosynthesis.[2] After the biomass is harvested, energy ("bioenergy") is extracted in useful forms (electricity, heat, biofuels, etc.) as the biomass is utilized through combustion, fermentation, pyrolysis or other conversion methods. Using bioenergy releases CO2. In BECCS, some of the CO2 is captured before it enters the atmosphere, and stored underground using carbon capture and storage technology.[3] Under some conditions, BECCS can can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.[3]

The potential range of negative emissions from BECCS was estimated to be zero to 22 gigatonnes per year.[4] As of 2019, five facilities around the world were actively using BECCS technologies and were capturing approximately 1.5 million tonnes per year of CO2.[5] Wide deployment of BECCS is constrained by cost and availability of biomass.[6][7]: 10  Since biomass production is land-intensive, deployment of BECCS can pose major risks to food production, human rights, and biodiversity.[8]

  1. ^ Sanchez, Daniel L.; Kammen, Daniel M. (2015-09-24). "Removing Harmful Greenhouse Gases from the Air Using Energy from Plants". Frontiers for Young Minds. 3. doi:10.3389/frym.2015.00014. ISSN 2296-6846.
  2. ^ Daley, Jason (24 April 2018). "The EPA Declared That Burning Wood Is Carbon Neutral. It's Actually a Lot More Complicated". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 30 June 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b National Academies of Sciences, Engineering (2018-10-24). Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda. pp. 10–13. doi:10.17226/25259. ISBN 978-0-309-48452-7. PMID 31120708. S2CID 134196575. Archived from the original on 2020-05-25. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  4. ^ Smith, Pete; Porter, John R. (July 2018). "Bioenergy in the IPCC Assessments". GCB Bioenergy. 10 (7): 428–431. Bibcode:2018GCBBi..10..428S. doi:10.1111/gcbb.12514. hdl:2164/10480.
  5. ^ "BECCS 2019 perspective" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-03-31. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
  6. ^ Rhodes, James S.; Keith, David W. (2008). "Biomass with capture: Negative emissions within social and environmental constraints: An editorial comment". Climatic Change. 87 (3–4): 321–8. Bibcode:2008ClCh...87..321R. doi:10.1007/s10584-007-9387-4.
  7. ^ Fajardy, Mathilde; Köberle, Alexandre; Mac Dowell, Niall; Fantuzzi, Andrea (2019). "BECCS deployment: a reality check" (PDF). Grantham Institute Imperial College London.
  8. ^ Deprez, Alexandra; Leadley, Paul; Dooley, Kate; Williamson, Phil; Cramer, Wolfgang; Gattuso, Jean-Pierre; Rankovic, Aleksandar; Carlson, Eliot L.; Creutzig, Felix (2024-02-02). "Sustainability limits needed for CO 2 removal". Science. 383 (6682): 484–486. doi:10.1126/science.adj6171. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 38301011. S2CID 267365599.