Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
Description
Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) offers a comprehensive review of the characteristics of BECCS technologies in relation to its various applications. The authors -- a team of expert professionals -- bring together in one volume the technical, scientific, social, economic and governance issues relating to the potential deployment of BECCS as a key approach to climate change mitigation.
The text contains information on the current and future opportunities and constraints for biomass energy, explores the technologies involved in BECCS systems and the performance characteristics of a variety of technical systems. In addition, the text includes an examination of the role of BECCS in climate change mitigation, carbon accounting across the supply chain and policy frameworks. The authors also offer a review of the social and ethical aspects as well as the costs and economics of BECCS. This important text:
* Reveals the role BECCS could play in the transition to a low-carbon economy
* Discusses the wide variety of technical and non-technical constraints of BECCS
* Presents the basics of biomass energy systems
* Reviews the technical and engineering issues pertinent to BECCS
* Explores the societal implications of BECCS systems
Written for academics and research professionals, Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) brings together in one volume the issues surrounding BECCS in an accessible and authoritative manner.
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Persons
Clair Gough is a Research Fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester.
Patricia Thornley is a Professor of sustainable energy systems in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester and director of the UK's Supergen Bioenergy Hub.
Sarah Mander is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester.
Naomi Vaughan is a lecturer in climate change at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.
Amanda Lea-Langton is a Lecturer in bioenergy engineering in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester.
Content
List of Contributors xiii
Foreword xvii
Preface xix
List of Abbreviations/Acronyms xxi
Part I BECCS Technologies 1
1 Understanding Negative Emissions From BECCS 3 Clair Gough, Sarah Mander, Patricia Thornley, Amanda Lea-Langton and Naomi Vaughan
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 Climate-Change Mitigation 4
1.3 Negative Emissions Technologies 7
1.4 Why BECCS? 8
1.5 Structure of the Book 10
1.5.1 Part I: BECCS Technologies 10
1.5.2 Part II: BECCS System Assessments 12
1.5.3 Part III: BECCS in the Energy System 13
1.5.4 Part IV: Summary and Conclusions 14
References 14
2 The Supply of Biomass for Bioenergy Systems 17 Andrew Welfle and Raphael Slade
2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Biomass Resource Demand 18
2.3 Resource Demand for BECCS Technologies 18
2.4 Forecasting the Availability of Biomass Resources 19
2.4.1 Modelling Non-Renewable Resources 20
2.4.2 Modelling Renewable Resources 21
2.4.2.1 Biomass Resource Modelling 21
2.4.3 Modelling Approaches - Bottom-Up versus Top-Down 23
2.5 Methods for Forecasting the Availability of Energy Crop Resources 24
2.6 Forecasting the Availability of Wastes and Residues From Ongoing Processes 25
2.7 Forecasting the Availability of Forestry Resources 26
2.8 Forecasting the Availability of Waste Resources 27
2.9 Biomass Resource Availability 28
2.10 Variability in Biomass Resource Forecasts 31
2.11 Biomass Supply and Demand Regions, and Key Trade Flows 33
2.11.1 Trade Hub Europe 33
2.11.2 Bioethanol - Key Global Trade Flows 34
2.11.3 Biodiesel - Key Global Trade Flows 34
2.11.4 Wood Pellets - Key Global Trade Flows 35
2.11.5 Wood Chip - Key Global Trade Flows 35
2.12 Global Biomass Trade Limitations and Uncertainty 36
2.12.1 Technical Barriers 36
2.12.2 Economic and Trade Barriers 36
2.12.3 Logistical Barriers 37
2.12.4 Regulatory Barriers 37
2.12.5 Geopolitical Barriers 38
2.13 Sustainability of Global Biomass Resource Production 38
2.13.1 Potential Land-Use Change Impacts 38
2.13.2 The 'Land for Food versus Land for Energy' Question 39
2.13.3 Potential Social Impacts 39
2.13.4 Potential Ecosystem and Biodiversity Impacts 40
2.13.5 Potential Water Impacts 40
2.13.6 Potential Air-Quality Impacts 41
2.14 Conclusions - Biomass Resource Potential and BECCS 41
References 42
3 Post-combustion and Oxy-combustion Technologies 47 Karen N. Finney, Hannah Chalmers, Mathieu Lucquiaud, Juan Riaza, János Szuhánszki and Bill Buschle
3.1 Introduction 47
3.2 Air Firing with Post-combustion Capture 48
3.2.1 Wet Scrubbing Technologies: Solvent-Based Capture Using Chemical Absorption 49
3.2.1.1 Amine-Based Capture 50
3.2.1.2 Steam Extraction for Solvent Regeneration 51
3.2.2 Membrane Separation 51
3.2.3 Brief Overview of Other Separation Methods 52
3.3 Oxy-Fuel Combustion 52
3.3.1 Oxy-Combustion of Biomass Using Flue Gas Recirculation 53
3.3.2 Enriched-Air Combustion 54
3.4 Challenges Associated with Biomass Utilisation Under BECCS Operating Conditions 55
3.4.1 Impacts of Biomass Trace Elements on Post-combustion Capture Performance 55
3.4.1.1 Alkali Metals 55
3.4.1.2 Transition Metals 56
3.4.1.3 Acidic Elements 57
3.4.1.4 Particulate Matter 57
3.4.1.5 Biomass-Specific Solvents for Post-combustion BECCS 57
3.4.2 Biomass Combustion Challenges for Oxy-Fuel Capture 58
3.4.2.1 Fuel Milling 59
3.4.2.2 Flame Temperature 59
3.4.2.3 Heat Transfer 59
3.4.2.4 Particle Heating, Ignition and Flame Propagation 59
3.4.2.5 Burnout 60
3.4.2.6 Emissions 60
3.4.2.7 Corrosion 60
3.5 Summary and Conclusions: Synopsis of Technical Knowledge and Assessment of Deployment Potential 61
References 63
4 Pre-combustion Technologies 67 Amanda Lea-Langton and Gordon Andrews
4.1 Introduction 67
4.2 The Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) 68
4.3 Gasification of Solid Fuels 69
4.4 Carbon Dioxide Separation Technologies 76
4.4.1 Physical Absorption 76
4.4.2 Adsorption Processes 77
4.4.3 Clathrate Hydrates 77
4.4.4 Membrane Technologies 77
4.4.5 Cryogenic Separation 78
4.4.6 Post-combustion Chilled Ammonia 78
4.5 Chemical Looping Processes 78
4.6 Existing Schemes 79
4.7 Modelling of IGCC Plant Thermal Efficiency With and Without
Pre-combustion CCS 80
4.8 Summary and Research Challenges 85
References 87
5 Techno-economics of Biomass-based Power Generation with CCS Technologies for Deployment in 2050 93 Amit Bhave, Paul Fennell, Niall Mac Dowell, Nilay Shah and Richard H.S. Taylor
5.1 Introduction 94
5.2 Case Study Analysis 101
Acknowledgements 113
References 113
Part II BECCS System Assessments 115
6 Life Cycle Assessment 117 Temitope Falano and Patricia Thornley
6.1 Introduction 117
6.2 Rationale for Supply-Chain Life-Cycle Assessment 117
6.3 Variability in Life-Cycle Assessment of Bioenergy Systems 120
6.3.1 Variability Related to Scope of System 120
6.3.1.1 Land-Use Emissions 120
6.3.1.2 Land-Use Change Emissions 121
6.3.1.3 Indirect Land-Use Change Emissions 121
6.3.2 Variability Related to Methodology 122
6.3.3 Variability Related to System Definition 122
6.3.4 Variability Related to Assumptions 122
6.4 Published LCAs of BECCS 123
6.5 Sensitivity Analysis of Reported Carbon Savings to Key System Parameters 124
6.5.1 Impact of CO2 Capture Efficiency 124
6.5.2 Variation of Energy Requirement Associated with CO2 Capture 125
6.5.3 Variation of Biomass Yield 125
6.6 Conclusions 125
References 126
7 System Characterisation of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Systems 129 Geoffrey P. Hammond
7.1 Introduction 129
7.1.1 Background 129
7.1.2 The Issues Considered 131
7.2 CCS Process Characterisation, Innovation and Deployment 131
7.2.1 CCS Process Characterisation 131
7.2.2 CCS Innovation and Deployment 133
7.3 CCS Options for the United Kingdom 135
7.4 The Sustainability Assessment Context 136
7.4.1.1 The Environmental Pillar 136
7.4.1.2 The Economic Pillar 137
7.4.1.3 The Social Pillar 137
7.5 CCS Performance Metrics 138
7.5.1 Energy Analysis and Metrics 138
7.5.2 Carbon Accounting and Related Parameters 139
7.5.3 Economic Appraisal and Indicators 140
7.6 CCS System Characterisation 141
7.6.1 CO2 Capture 141
7.6.1.1 Technical Exemplars 141
7.6.1.2 Energy Metrics 141
7.6.1.3 Carbon Emissions 142
7.6.1.4 Economic Indicators 145
7.6.2 CO2 Transport and Clustering 147
7.6.3 CO2 Storage 149
7.6.3.1 Storage Options and Capacities 149
7.6.3.2 Storage Site Risks, Environmental Impacts and Monitoring 150
7.6.3.3 Storage Economics 152
7.6.4 Whole CCS Chain Assessment 153
7.7 Concluding Remarks 156
Acknowledgments 157
References 158
8 The System Value of Deploying Bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) in the United Kingdom 163 Geraldine Newton-Cross and Dennis Gammer
8.1 Background 163
8.1.1 Why BECCS? 163
8.1.2 Critical Knowledge Gaps 168
8.2 Context 168
8.2.1 Bioenergy 168
8.2.2 Bioenergy with CCS 169
8.3 Progressing our Understanding of the Key Uncertainties Associated with BECCS 170
8.3.1 Can a Sufficient Level of BECCS Be Deployed in the United Kingdom to Support Cost-Effective Decarbonisation Pathways for the United Kingdom out to 2050? 170
8.3.2 What are the Right Combinations of Feedstock, Preprocessing, Conversion and Carbon-Capture Technologies to Deploy for Bioenergy Production in the United Kingdom? 174
8.3.2.1 Optimising Feedstock Properties for Future Bioenergy Conversion Technologies 174
8.3.2.2 BECCS Value Chains: What Carbon-Capture Technologies Do we Need to Develop? 175
8.3.3 How can we Deliver the Greatest Emissions Savings from Bioenergy and BECCS in the United Kingdom? 176
8.3.4 How Much CO2 Could Be Stored from UK Sources and How Do we Monitor These Stores Efficiently and Safely? 178
8.3.4.1 Storage Potential 178
8.3.4.2 Managing the Risks of Storage 178
8.4 Conclusion: Completing the BECCS Picture 180
8.4.1 Next Steps 180
References 181
Part III BECCS in the Energy System 185
9 The Climate-Change Mitigation Challenge 187 Sarah Mander, Kevin Anderson, Alice Larkin, Clair Gough and Naomi Vaughan
9.1 Introduction 187
9.2 Cumulative Emissions and Atmospheric CO2 Concentration for 2°C Commitments 188
9.3 The Role of BECCS for Climate-Change Mitigation - A Summary of BECCS within Integrated Assessment Modelling 190
9.3.1 Key Assumptions 194
9.4 Implications and Consequences of BECCS 194
9.5 Conclusions: Can BECCS Deliver what's Expected of it? 199
References 200
10 The Future for Bioenergy Systems: The Role of BECCS? 205 Gabrial Anandarajah, Olivier Dessens and Will McDowall
10.1 Introduction 205
10.2 Methodology 206
10.2.1 TIAM-UCL 206
10.2.2 Representation of Bioenergy and CCS Technologies in TIAM-UCL 208
10.2.3 Scenario Definitions 209
10.3 Results and Discussions 211
10.3.1 2°C Scenarios With and Without BECCS 211
10.3.2 Sensitivity Around Availability of Sustainable Bioenergy 215
10.3.3 1.5 °C Scenarios 221
10.4 Discussion and Conclusions 224
References 225
11 Policy Frameworks and Supply-Chain Accounting 227 Patricia Thornley and Alison Mohr
11.1 Introduction 227
11.2 The Origin and Use of Supply-Chain Analysis in Bioenergy Systems 228
11.2.1 Rationale for Systems-Level Evaluation 228
11.2.2 Importance and Significance of Scope of System 230
11.2.3 Importance and Significance of Breadth of Analysis 231
11.3 Policy Options 232
11.3.1 Objectives of BECCS Policy 232
11.3.2 Review of Existing Policy Frameworks 234
11.3.2.1 International Policy Frameworks 234
11.3.2.1.1 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 234
11.3.2.1.2 EU Emissions Trading System 236
11.3.2.1.3 Renewable Energy Directive and Fuel Quality Directive 236
11.3.2.2 National Policy Frameworks in the United Kingdom 237
11.3.2.2.1 Renewables Obligation and Contracts for Difference 237
11.3.2.2.2 Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation 238
11.4 Ensuring Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability of a BECCS System 238
11.4.1 Environmental Sustainability and System Scope 238
11.4.2 Economic Sustainability and System Scope 240
11.4.3 Social Sustainability and System Scope 241
11.4.4 Trade-Offs Between Different Sustainability Components 243
11.5 Governance of BECCS Systems 245
11.6 Conclusions: The Future of BECCS Policy and Governance 247
References 248
12 Social and Ethical Dimensions of BECCS 251 Clair Gough, Leslie Mabon and Sarah Mander
12.1 Introduction 251
12.2 Fossil Fuels and BECCS 252
12.3 Alternative Approaches 254
12.3.1 Negative Emissions Approaches and CDR 254
12.3.2 Different Mitigation Approaches 256
12.4 Sustainable Decarbonisation 257
12.5 Societal Responses 258
12.6 Justice 262
12.6.1 Distributional Justice 262
12.6.2 Procedural Justice 263
12.6.3 Financial Justice 265
12.6.4 Intergenerational Justice 267
12.6.5 Summary 268
12.7 Summary 269
References 270
13 Unlocking Negative Emissions 277 Clair Gough, Patricia Thornley, Sarah Mander, Naomi Vaughan and Amanda Lea-Langton
13.1 Introduction 277
13.2 Summary of Chapters 277
13.3 Unlocking Negative Emissions: System-Level Challenges 282
13.3.1 Terminology, Scale and Quantification 282
13.3.2 Non-Technological Challenges 284
13.3.3 Technical Challenges 287
13.4 Can Negative Emissions be Unlocked? 287
13.4.1 Do we Need This Technology? 288
13.4.2 Can it Work? 288
13.4.3 Does the Focus on BECCS Distract From the Imperative to Radically Reduce Demand and Transform the Global Energy System? 288
13.4.4 How Can BECCS Unlock Negative Emissions? 289
13.5 Summing Up 290
References 290
Index 291
Chapter 1
Understanding Negative Emissions From BECCS
Clair Gough1, Sarah Mander1, Patricia Thornley1, Amanda Lea-Langton1, and Naomi Vaughan2
1Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Mechanical Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester, UK
2School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
1.1 Introduction
Changes in our climate are driven by human activity such as agriculture, deforestation and burning coal, oil and gas. The single most significant driver of climate change is the increase in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide () in our atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels. Efforts to limit the impacts of climate change focus on reducing the emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases and adapting to live with the changing climate. In recent years, a third approach has gained significant attention: action to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store the CO2 for long timescales (over hundreds of years). Recent negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change () delivered the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set a target of limiting global average temperature rise to 'well below 2 °C' (the 2 °C target having been agreed within the UNFCCC in 2010) while 'pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C' (UNFCCC, 2015). These are ambitious goals that will require immediate and radical emissions reductions if they are to be met. The idea of introducing 'negative emissions' is born out of the gap between the current trajectory in global emissions and the pathway necessary to avoid dangerous climate change. The most prominent proposal for achieving such negative emissions is to use biomass as a feedstock to generate electricity (or produce biofuels or hydrogen), capture the CO2 during production and store it underground in geological reservoirs - biomass energy with carbon capture and storage, or for short. However, the negative emissions concept remains just that, a concept; in principle, technologies such as BECCS can deliver net CO2 removal at a project scale, or potentially at a global scale sufficient to impact atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and associated global average temperatures - but in practice, this potential has yet to be accessed at anything like a global scale. This book explores the challenges of unlocking negative emissions using BECCS.
Future climate change is most commonly explored using a suite of models that represent the Earth's climate system, the physical and socio-economic impacts of a changing climate and the greenhouse gases and other drivers generated by the global economy and energy systems. Integrated assessment models (s) are used to create scenarios of future emissions that are used by climate and impact models. The growing and significant dependence on BECCS in future emissions scenarios in global IAMs has placed BECCS at the centre of the discourse around achieving targets of 2 °C global average temperature rise and, following the 2015 Paris Agreement, 1.5 °C. This reliance on BECCS hinges on its potential to remove CO2 from the atmosphere in order to maintain a sustainable atmospheric concentration of CO2 in a cost-effective manner.
There are many different technical options that could deliver negative emissions via BECCS and these vary in their technology readiness level (). Some of the closer-to-market BECCS technologies are composed of component parts that have been proven and tested, but integration and deployment have not yet been demonstrated at commercial scale. Consequently, there remain significant uncertainties associated with BECCS performance and costs. Understanding the potential for, and implications of, pursuing BECCS requires an interdisciplinary approach. It has been suggested that BECCS could play a role in offsetting hard-to-abate sectors (e.g. agriculture and aviation) or enable delayed action on mitigation. While the atmospheric concentration of CO2 continues to rise and policy objectives focus on limiting warming to 1.5 °C, it becomes increasingly likely that a means of delivering negative emissions will be required. Whether or not limiting warming to 1.5 °C is feasible without negative emissions remains unclear. In 2018, the IPCC will deliver a special report devoted to understanding the emissions pathways and impacts associated with 1.5 °C.
Despite its significance within the formal policy goals, there is very little practical experience of implementing the technology in commercial applications and limited research into the practicalities of implementation and conditions for accelerating deployment. Combining modern biomass energy systems with CCS not only presents technical and scientific challenges but, to be implemented at scales large enough to deliver global net negative emissions, also depends on other factors, such as geopolitics and supply-chain integration and may have significant societal implications. To understand BECCS, what it can offer and how it might contribute to climate-change mitigation, it is essential to consider the technical and non-technical constraints in a holistic manner.
This book aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of BECCS, describing the technology options available and the implications of its future deployment. While there is a rich literature relating to bioenergy and carbon capture and storage () separately, there is currently very little published research on the integration of these components. Our aim is to address this gap, bringing together technical, scientific, social, economic and governance issues relating to the potential deployment of BECCS as a key climate-change mitigation approach. The uniqueness of the book lies in bringing these subjects together and imposing order on the disparate sources of information. Doing this in a clear and accessible way will support a more informed debate around the potential for this technology to deliver deep cuts in emissions.
1.2 Climate-Change Mitigation
In its Fifth Assessment Report (), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014) identified four so-called representative concentration pathways (s), describing time-dependent ranges of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration trajectories, emissions and land-use data between 2005 and 2100 (van Vuuren et al., 2011). Created by IAMs, each RCP is associated with emissions pathways that result in atmospheric concentrations correlated with different levels of radiative forcing; these are RCP2.6 (i.e. a radiative forcing of 2.6 W m-2), RCP4.5, RCP6, RCP8.5 (IPCC, 2014). Greenhouse gas concentrations within each RCP are associated with a probability of limiting temperature rise to below certain levels; only the lower concentrations within RCP2.6 are considered 'likely' (i.e. associated with a greater than 66% chance) to limit global atmospheric temperature rise to below 2 °C, or 'more unlikely than likely' (i.e. a less than 50% chance) for 1.5 °C (IPCC, 2014). The RCPs provide a consistent framework for analysis in different areas of climate-change research - for example, by climate modellers to analyse potential climate impacts associated with the pathways (including projected global average temperature rise) and in IAMs to explore alternative ways in which the emissions pathways for each RCP could be achieved (i.e. mitigation scenarios) under different economic, technological, demographic and policy conditions (IPCC, 2014; van Vuuren et al., 2011). The shared socio-economic pathways (s) offer a further framework for IAMs to explore alternative emission pathways, by detailing different socioeconomic narratives that are consistent with the RCPs (O'Neill et al., 2017).
Climate-change mitigation policies are focused around limiting the increase in the global average temperature as described earlier. Achieving these targets is dependent on tight limits to cumulative emissions of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) in order to stabilise their atmospheric concentration. The cumulative emissions associated with a particular temperature goal is known as a carbon budget - the remaining budget for a 66% chance of keeping temperatures below a 2 °C increase is 800 Gt CO2 (from 2017) (Le Quéré et al., 2016). With global emissions currently at about 36 Gt CO2/year, this equates to about 20 years at current emissions rates before the budget is exceeded; until emissions are reduced to near zero, atmospheric CO2 concentration will continue to rise (ibid).
In this context, by offering a route to delivering negative emissions, BECCS appears to be an attractive approach to potentially enabling mitigation costs to be reduced, more ambitious targets to become feasible than would otherwise be possible or allowing a delay to the year in which emissions will peak by enabling removal of CO2 from the atmosphere in the future (Friedlingstein et al., 2011; van Vuuren et al., 2013). Typically, scenarios that are 'likely' to stay within 2 °C include such an overshoot in the concentration achieved through large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal...
