UK to harness carbon capture and bioenergy to meet net zero commitments

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is an engineered greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technology that captures and stores CO2 from biomass while producing low carbon energy, including electricity, heat, hydrogen and biofuels.

Energy sector expert Stacey Collins of Pinsent Masons said: “There has been much debate about whether, and to what extent, BECCS should form part of a country’s net zero strategy. This latest announcement confirms that the UK sees a key role for BECCS, provided there are appropriate controls around how the technology is employed.”

According to the strategy (204 pages / 8.22MB PDF), which examined the sustainability and availability of bioenergy – as well as how it might be used across the UK economy –well-regulated BECCS can achieve its objective to deliver negative emissions and ensure positive outcomes for people, the environment, and the climate.

Although BECCS is not currently operating at scale in the UK, a new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero report (29 pages / 1.5MB PDF) found that the technology is operating successfully at commercial scale in other countries.

Collins said: “The UK has a significant challenge to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and it makes sense for it to explore all possible technological routes that can help get it there. If done correctly, and sustainably, BECCS can deliver net-negative emissions, which is likely to be important to off-set residual emissions from hard to decarbonise sectors.”

According to the strategy, BECCS could be deployed in the UK via several possible routes. It said “active work” is ongoing to support BECCS in government, including development of several business models to support it.

Alongside this, the strategy said the government recognised the need to develop a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) framework which provides confidence that GGR projects deliver verifiable climate benefits. The government’s MRV proposals will be informed by an independent review of the existing landscape of standards being conducted by E4Tech and Element Energy, which it intends to publish.

Until the government’s own MRV standards are developed, it said businesses could use some “guiding parameters” outlined in the recently published response to the GGR business model consultation (81 pages / 827 KB PDF). These parameters relate to revenue certainty, value for money and climate integrity.

Collins said: “These latest details are heartening to those of us active in the sector, but there’s still more development and clarity needed before the promise of BECCS can properly be realised. We expect more clarity on the government’s position regarding BECCS as part of the UK government’s promised ‘vision for the UK CCUS sector’ which is due in the fourth quarter of 2023.”

The biomass strategy also set out several ‘BECCS principles’ designed to steer the government’s policy on the technology. The principles state that ministers should only support BECCS projects which meet “clear, enforceable, and transparent” sustainability criteria, and that support should only be given to BECCS systems that deliver verifiable net GGRs – irrespective of where emissions occur in the supply chain.

The principles also state that BECCS projects should provide valuable, low-carbon co-products or services, alongside GGRs, to maximise the use of sustainable biomass, and must achieve long-term and safe carbon storage to guarantee atmospheric carbon removal.