Bioenergy: Opportunities for Mitigation, Negative Emissions and BECCS

Background

The IEA convened a discussion on the role of combining bioenergy with carbon capture and storage technologies for climate mitigation and negative emissions, at the International Conference on Biomass Energy Technologies - 8th World Bioenergy Symposium (ICBT-WBS) October 17-19 2014, in Changsha, Hunan Province, PRC. These sessions provided an opportunity to discuss both global and regional perspectives on the technology and impact for long-term climate mitigation scenarios, technology pathways and biomass availability.

The BECCS Sessions organized by:IEA and supported by the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis and the Administrative Centre for China’s 21st Century Agenda (ACCA21), Ministry of Science and Technology. 

ICBT-WBS 2014 was organized by: Chinese Renewable Energy Society, Strategic Alliance for Technology and Innovation in Biomass Energy Industry, European Biomass Industry Association, Forestry Branch of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, United Nations Development Programme, Hunan Academy of Forestry, Tsinghua-UFRJ China-Brasil Center for Climate Change and Energy Technology Innovation (CCBCE), State Forestry Administration.

The IPCC 5th Assessment Report Working Group III placed substantial emphasis on CCS and especially the role of BECCS combining bioenergy with CCS. Most stabilisation scenarios reaching 450ppm by 2100 rely on availability of BECCS in their scenarios including several scenarios with wide BECCS deployment prior to 2050. At the global level this is achieved by more rapid improvements of energy efficiency, a tripling to nearly a quadrupling of the share of zero ‐ and low‐carbon energy supply from renewables, nuclear energy and fossil energy with carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), or bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) by the year 2050. Many models could not achieve atmospheric concentration levels of 450 ppm CO2eq by 2100, if additional mitigation is considerably delayed or under limited availability of key technologies, such as bioenergy, CCS, and their combination (BECCS).

The combination of bioenergy with carbon capture is a carbon reducing technology that can achieve net removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is a significant advantage over other mitigation alternatives, which only decrease the amount of emissions to the atmosphere. Bioenergy coupled with CCS (BECCS) has attracted particular attention since AR4 because it offers the prospect of energy supply with negative emissions. Technological challenges and potential risks of BECCS include those associated with the upstream provision of biomass that is used in the CCS facility, as well as, those originating from the capture, transport, and long‐term underground storage of CO2 that would otherwise be emitted. Constraints on the use of CCS would prohibit BECCS deployment. To understand bioenergy’s role in transformation pathways, it is important to understand bioenergy’s role within the energy system. In scenarios that do include BECCS technologies, BECCS is deployed in greater quantities and earlier in time the more stringent the goal, in some scenarios potentially representing 100% of bioenergy in 2050.

The IEA has engaged in a series of workshops and expert meetings in partnership with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and experts around the world to explore the opportunities and challenges for developing this option in key regions.

 More information on previous workshops and meetings available at:

IEA-IIASA BECCS Experts Meeting (2012)

Bioenergy, CCS and BECCS: Options for Indonesia (2012)
Workshop organized by the IEA, Republic of Indonesia KESDM & UKP4, SBMITB and IIASA

Bio-energy and CCS (BECCS): Options for Brazil (2013)
Workshop organised by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, NUPPREC and IEA

Bioenergy: Opportunities for Mitigation, Negative Emissions and BECCS
ICBT-WBS Changsha, China 2014 Sessions Agenda

October 18 Morning

Plenary Session (30 minutes) :

Dennis Best, Policy Analyst, International Energy Agency

Bioenergy in industry and power: options for CCS, BECCS and a negative emission pathway

October 19 Morning (9:00-12:30)

Session I (9:00-10:30): Bioenergy: Opportunities for Mitigation, Negative Emissions and BECCS

Chair: Dennis Best, IEA
Rapporteur: Florian Kraxner, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Sabine Fuss, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) 
The role of BECCS and negative emissions in global climate change mitigation scenarios

Zhang Xian, Administrative Centre for China’s Agenda 21, Ministry of Science and Technology
Carbon capture and storage developments in China

Florian Kraxner, Ecosystem Services and Management (ESM) Program, IIASA
Managing impacts of scale and sustainability in a BECCS context

Xie Guanghui, Professor, China Agriculture University 
China's biomass availability and potentials

Session II (11:00 – 12:30): Combining Bioenergy and CCS: Steps to 2020 and beyond
Chair: Florian Kraxner, IIASA
Rapporteur: Sabine Fuss, MCCWei Wei and Sun Nannan, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences
BECCS and near term opportunities - options for CO2 utilizationWolf Heidug, Senior Energy Analyst, International Energy Agency
Combining bioenergy with CCS: Experience from the field, and policy implicationsAntti Arasto, Bioenergy Manager, VTT RESEARCH CENTRE, FINLAND (remote presentation) and Dennis Best, IEA
BECCS: Technical considerations in dealing with ScalePanel discussion: To BE or not to BE: Options for CCS in key sectors in power and industry (30 min) 
Panelists: Dennis Best, Sabine Fuss, Wolf Heidug, Xie Guanghui, Sun Nannan, Zhang Xian