SaurEnergy Explains: BECCS – Bridging Energy Production and Carbon Removal

The world is making urgent efforts to reduce carbon footprints across various industries by adopting measures such as shifting to renewable energy, reducing coal and petroleum use, and promoting sustainability. While many of these measures focus on cutting emissions, others, like carbon capture and storage (CCS), aim to trap existing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is one such solution with great potential to reduce net carbon emissions.

BECCS captures and permanently stores CO2 from processes where biomass is converted into fuels or directly burned to generate energy. Since plants absorb CO2, this method helps remove CO2 from the atmosphere. This blog provides a brief overview of BECCS, its potential, and market analysis.

Significance of the BECCS Technology

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is the only carbon dioxide removal technique that can also generate energy. Bioenergy provides high-temperature heat and fuels that work with existing engines, making BECCS a viable option for decarbonising sectors like heavy industry, aviation, and trucking—major emitters of carbon dioxide and significant contributors to global warming. This technology could play a key role in achieving Net Zero Emissions by 2050.

Biogenic sources for BECCS include process emissions from biofuel and biohydrogen production, as well as combustion emissions from power plants, waste-to-energy plants, and industrial applications that use or co-fire biomass (such as cement, pulp, and paper industries) or biochar as a reducing agent (as in steel production).

In addition to storage, captured CO2 can be used as a feedstock for various products. While certain carbon capture and utilisation pathways offer climate benefits, permanent storage is necessary for true carbon dioxide removal.

Despite growing awareness of BECCS’ importance for reaching net-zero, its deployment remains limited.

Weak Progress So Far

Currently, only about 2 Mt of biogenic CO2 is captured annually, mostly from bioethanol production, with less than 1 Mt CO2 stored in dedicated storage. Around 90% of the CO2 capture occurs in bioethanol facilities, which is one of the lowest-cost BECCS applications due to the high concentration of CO2 in the process gas stream.

With projects in both early and advanced stages of development, carbon capture from biogenic sources could reach approximately 60 Mt CO2 per year by 2030. However, this is still significantly below the 185 Mt CO2 per year needed to meet the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) scenario.

As awareness of the need to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide grows, investment in BECCS and other carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects is expected to rise globally. Targeted support for CDR, especially BECCS, will be essential to turn this growing momentum into operational capacity.

Regions Adopting BECCS

Countries are beginning to adopt BECCS technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere, though most activity is concentrated in the Western world. Regions making significant progress include Denmark, the EU, the United States, and the UK.

In Denmark, the NECCS Fund offers up to DKK 2.6 billion (EUR 350 million) in subsidies to support CO2 capture from biogenic sources and geological storage. Starting in 2025, the fund aims to achieve an additional 0.5 Mt of negative emissions per year. The Danish Energy Agency awarded three BECCS project contracts under this fund in April 2024.

In the UK, the government responded to a public consultation in March 2023 by confirming plans for a BECCS business model in the power sector. This will include a contractual framework and a dual contract for difference (CfD) payment mechanism for large-scale BECCS projects.

The United States launched a USD 35 million carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pilot prize in September 2023 to incentivise companies across various removal pathways, including BECCS. In February 2024, an additional USD 100 million was allocated to support CDR pilot projects.

In the EU, a provisional agreement was reached in February 2024 on the Carbon Removals Certification Framework. This voluntary regulation sets quality standards and reporting guidelines to encourage investment in carbon removal technologies, including BECCS. The Horizon Europe programme plans to open a tender for BECCS and DAC projects in September 2024, with a submission deadline in January 2025.

Projects Under Way

In Denmark, two combined heat and power plants capable of removing over 0.4 Mt of CO2 annually by 2026 began construction after being awarded contracts by the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) in May 2023 as part of the carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) subsidy scheme. In April 2024, the DEA awarded additional contracts to three BECCS projects through the DKK 2.6 billion (EUR 350 million) Negative Emissions CCS (NECCS) fund.

In the United Kingdom, the government responded in March 2023 to a public consultation on developing a BECCS business model for the power sector.

In the United States, a new capture facility was commissioned at the Blue Flint bioethanol plant in North Dakota. The federal government also launched a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pilot programme, where offtake agreements will be signed with CDR providers, including BECCS.

The largest operational BECCS project to date is the Illinois Industrial CCS Project, which has been capturing CO2 for permanent geological storage since 2018. The Red Trail Energy and Blue Flint bioethanol plants, the second and third in the U.S. dedicated to CO2 storage, went online in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Other small-scale bioethanol facilities in Europe and the U.S. are also capturing CO2, though most of it is either sold to greenhouses for crop yield enhancement or used in enhanced oil recovery.

Diversifying BECCS for Future

The growth of BECCS has been modest so far, but this is expected to change as more power and industrial projects come online. According to the IEA, around 70 additional bioethanol facilities are set to be operational by 2030, including 57 from the Midwest Carbon Express project in the United States, which will collectively capture nearly 20 Mt of biogenic CO2.

Recent project announcements also indicate that the BECCS pipeline is diversifying, with more capture projects being planned in sectors like heat and power, hydrogen, and cement. By 2030, up to 30 Mt of biogenic CO2 could be captured from heat and power plants, with over 80% coming from dedicated biopower plants and the rest from waste-to-energy facilities. In Denmark, construction began on two combined heat and power plants in 2023 under the Danish Energy Agency’s CCUS subsidy scheme.

In the cement industry, seven plants have announced plans to integrate biomass feedstock into clinker production and retrofit CCUS technology. However, most aim to be carbon-neutral rather than carbon-negative due to partial capture rates or partial biomass substitution. Notable projects include the Brevik Norcem plant in Norway, the Go4ECOPlanet project in Poland, the Edmonton cement plant in Canada, the Padeswood cement plant in the UK, and the GeZero project in Germany.

Additionally, three projects are exploring CCUS retrofits at pulp and paper mills, including a feasibility study announced in 2023 at the Hokuetsu pulp plant as part of the East Niigata area CCS hub in Japan.

Plans are also in place for five hydrogen facilities to operate partly or fully on biomass with CCUS, with two new facilities announced in the U.S. in 2023.

What Lies Ahead

Technological advancements in CO2 capture and biomass conversion can enhance the effectiveness of BECCS and accelerate its adoption. While some BECCS routes are commercially viable, the most critical ones remain at the demonstration or pilot stage.

CO2 capture from first-generation bioethanol production is the most mature BECCS pathway, with operations dating back to the late 2000s. In industries like pulp and paper mills, cement plants, and steel blast furnaces, biomass co-firing is already commercial. However, CO2 capture from cement kilns and blast furnace off-gas is still in the prototype or demonstration phase. The world’s first commercial CO2 capture unit on a cement kiln is currently under construction, scheduled for commissioning in 2025.

Chemical absorption remains the leading capture method, but other technologies with lower energy requirements are under development. Since March 2022, UK power company Drax has been piloting solid-adsorption capture using metal organic frameworks at its North Yorkshire incubation hub. Efforts to demonstrate large-scale biomass gasification for syngas applications are also underway, aiming to reduce capital costs and increase feedstock flexibility. Notable projects include one in Sweden using woody biomass for biomethane production and another in the UK focusing on waste conversion.