Why the UK needs biomass energy capture, use and storage to reach net zero
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) will play an essential part in decarbonising our energy.
More and more experts are arguing that renewable electricity generated from biomass will be crucial to the UK reaching its target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
It won’t be important simply for power generation. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) will also play a crucial role. BECCS is a carbon negative source of electricity that actually offsets other emissions.
Why is BECCS so vital for decarbonisation?
Negative emissions are essential if the UK is to offset difficult-to-decarbonise sectors of the economy — according to the Committee on Climate Change.
BECCS generates electricity from biomass grown in sustainably managed forests. These forests absorb CO2 as they grow, so offsetting the CO2 released in power generation, making the process carbon neutral.
If you add carbon capture and storage to this process, then it removes more CO2 from the atmosphere than is emitted during generation, making the power production process carbon negative.
This will be needed, because carbon-intensive industries — such as aviation and agriculture — may never be completely decarbonised, as suggested in a report by The Energy Systems Catapult.
While the report also supports other technologies such as direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), these will take time to develop and to achieve the necessary scale.
Carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) technology is already deployed at scale in Norway, the US, Australia and Canada, so from a technological point of view, BECCS is ready to be deployed at scale now.
As well as counteracting remaining emissions, however, BECCS can also help to decarbonise other industries by enabling the growth of a different low carbon fuel: hydrogen.
BECCS — enabling a hydrogen economy
The Committee on Climate Change emphasise the need for zero carbon alternatives to fossil fuels — in particular hydrogen or H2 in their report ‘Hydrogen in a low-carbon economy’.
Hydrogen produces only heat and water vapour in combustion. It can also be stored as a liquid and has a high level of energy density, which makes it a zero carbon zero alternative to diesel and petrol in transport.
BECCS can make hydrogen production carbon negative
BECCS can enable the creation of a hydrogen economy in many ways. The most promising is using biomass to produce hydrogen through a process called gasification. Solid organic material is heated to a temperature of more than 700°C, but because it is prevented from combusting, it breaks down into the gases hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO). The CO then reacts with water to form CO2 and more H2. As CO2 is absorbed by the organic material when it is growing, the process is already carbon neutral. But if carbon capture is added to gasification at this at this point, hydrogen production can be rendered carbon negative.
BECCS could reduce the cost of flexible electricity
The cost of transforming the energy system to net zero is one of the major challenges the UK faces as it approaches its goal.
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) projects that using BECCS would have little impact on the total cost of the power system if it is deployed for its negative emissions potential.
The NIC suggested that BECCS units would run frequently and for long periods, uninterrupted by changes in the weather, rather than jumping into action to account for peaks in demand.
Allied to its emission-offsetting ability this means that BECCS — together with intermittent renewables such as wind and solar — could provide the UK with zero carbon electricity at a significantly lower cost than that of constructing a new fleet of nuclear power stations.
