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Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage BECCS

BECCS captures the CO2 released when biomass is converted to energy and stores it geologically. The geological durability is not in dispute; whether the pathway delivers net removal is, and the answer turns entirely on the carbon debt of the feedstock.

One of eight durable carbon removal pathways presented by CDR Türkiye, all intended to store carbon for centuries to millennia.

Overview

Open a heading to read the detail.

  1. How it works BECCS takes the carbon a plant drew from the air and, instead of returning it during energy production, captures it and sends it underground.

    The chain is assembled from two mature parts: a plant that burns biomass and a unit that separates CO2 from the flue gas. The distinctive risk lies not in either technology but in the feedstock.

  2. Scale and price today Deployment today is 0.51 million tonnes of CO2 per year, and the 800,000 t/yr capture unit at Stockholm Exergi’s biomass-fired combined heat and power plant begins operating in 2028.

    The most defensible public price signal is Sweden’s competitive reverse auction: SEK 20bn for 11 million tonnes over 15 years, or roughly SEK 1,818 per tonne. Most BECCS still exceeds $200/t.

  3. The feedstock objection The decisive objection comes from the feedstock.

    A finding published in Nature Sustainability holds that forest-fuelled BECCS is unlikely to generate negative emissions within 150 years and may produce higher emissions for decades than unabated natural gas. Industry contests it, but the finding appeared in a top journal and bears directly on any proposition built on abundant biomass. The objection is known as carbon debt: harvesting forest biomass reduces the carbon the forest holds, and regrowth can take decades to close that gap.

  4. Inventory protocol and Türkiye In one respect BECCS is ahead of every other durable pathway: it is the only one with an internationally agreed protocol for reporting in a national greenhouse gas inventory.

    On the Türkiye side there is no operating facility, and storage access has only been looked at in general CCS source-to-sink screenings, not for bioenergy plants specifically; if a forest-fuelled proposition is to be built, the carbon-debt calculation has to come first.

State of CDR, 3rd edition Swedish Energy Agency Searchinger et al., Nature Sustainability

Technologies and applications

Technology types The technical methods that capture, convert or store the carbon. Application areas The sectors, facilities and end uses where the method is applied.

Technology types

The technical methods that capture, convert or store the carbon.

  • Technology type

    Biomass combustion with amine capture

    The most widely studied BECCS arrangement, in which biomass is burnt in a boiler and CO2 is chemically separated from the flue gas by an amine solution.

    How it works
    1. Biomass

      Biomass is grown or collected as residue.

    2. Combustion

      It is burnt in a boiler to produce heat and power.

    3. Flue gas

      The flue gas, about 12 percent CO2, is cooled and routed to a capture column.

    4. Amine capture

      CO2 binds to the amine solution and cleaned gas leaves the stack.

    5. CO2 recovery

      The solution is heated to recover the CO2 and the amine returns to the loop.

    6. Compression and storage

      Captured CO2 is compressed and injected into a geological formation.

    Durability
    Modelled

    >1,000 years

    Applies only once the CO2 is stored geologically.

    What it rests on
    The storage step rests on the same geological basis as direct air capture, and that part is not contested. What is contested is net removal: where the feedstock comes from forests, the carbon-debt calculation determines the answer.
    IPCC AR6 WG3, Ch. 12
Next tab Application areas

Application areas

The sectors, facilities and end uses where the method is applied.

  • Application area

    CO2 from bioethanol fermentation

    A BECCS application in which the near-pure CO2 stream fermentation produces naturally is dried and stored directly.

    How it works
    1. Fermentation

      Yeast converts sugar to ethanol and CO2 is released as a by-product.

    2. Collection

      The near-pure CO2 leaving the tank is collected.

    3. Drying

      Moisture and trace components are removed from the stream.

    4. Compression

      The dry CO2 is compressed to pipeline pressure.

    5. Storage

      It is injected into a geological formation.

    Durability
    Modelled

    >1,000 years

    Applies only once the CO2 is stored geologically.

    What it rests on
    Because the stream is already concentrated, no separation step is needed, which makes this the lowest-cost route within BECCS. The net removal question still stands: where the feedstock is an energy crop, land-use accounting determines the answer.
    IPCC AR6 WG3, Ch. 12

  • Application area

    Biogas upgrading

    An application in which the CO2 separated while biogas is upgraded to biomethane is stored rather than vented.

    How it works
    1. Digestion

      Organic waste is converted to biogas in an anaerobic digester.

    2. Separation

      CO2 is separated from the methane and the biomethane goes to the grid.

    3. Purification

      Trace components are removed from the separated CO2 stream.

    4. Compression and storage

      The CO2 is compressed and injected into a geological formation.

    Durability
    Modelled

    >1,000 years

    Applies only once the CO2 is stored geologically.

    What it rests on
    The separation happens anyway as part of the process, so the removal claim rests solely on storing the stream rather than on adding a capture unit. Volumes per site are small, which makes storage logistics the binding constraint.
    IPCC AR6 WG3, Ch. 12

  • Application area

    Capture at a pulp and paper mill

    Capture of CO2 from the biogenic flue gas of the recovery boiler where black liquor from pulping is burnt.

    How it works
    1. Recovery boiler

      Black liquor, a by-product of pulping, is burnt in the recovery boiler.

    2. Biogenic flue gas

      The carbon in the resulting flue gas is almost entirely plant-derived.

    3. Capture

      CO2 is chemically separated from the flue gas.

    4. Compression and storage

      Captured CO2 is compressed and injected into a geological formation.

    Durability
    Modelled

    >1,000 years

    Applies only once the CO2 is stored geologically.

    What it rests on
    Mills are large and run continuously, so capturable volume at a single point is high: a purchase agreement for 3.685 million tonnes of biogenic CO2 over 12 years from a US pulp and paper mill is the present indicator of that scale, with capture expected to begin in 2028. Attaching a capture unit to a recovery boiler, by contrast, is still at pilot scale. Because the feedstock comes from forests, the carbon-debt objection applies most directly to this type.
    CO280, Microsoft offtake agreement

  • Application area

    Capture at a waste-to-energy plant

    Capture of CO2 from a plant burning municipal waste, where only the biogenic share of the stream counts as removal.

    How it works
    1. Waste combustion

      Sorted municipal waste is burnt in a boiler and converted to energy.

    2. Flue gas

      The flue gas carries biogenic and fossil carbon together.

    3. Capture

      CO2 is chemically separated from the flue gas.

    4. Share determination

      The biogenic share is measured and only that share is booked as removal.

    5. Storage

      Captured CO2 is compressed and injected into a geological formation.

    Durability
    Calculated

    >1,000 years

    Applies only once the CO2 is stored; and only the biogenic share counts as removal.

    What it rests on
    The mixed stream is this type’s distinguishing problem: storing CO2 from fossil-derived plastic is an emission reduction, not a removal. How the biogenic share is measured determines the whole of the claim.
    IPCC AR6 WG3, Ch. 12

  • Application area

    Onboard capture on a ship

    CO2 captured on board a vessel running on biogenic fuel, offloaded in port and sent to a geological formation: BECCS built on a moving source.

    How it works
    1. Exhaust stream

      The exhaust of a vessel running on biogenic fuel is routed to a capture unit on board.

    2. Capture

      CO2 is chemically separated and held on board, for example liquefied in deck tanks.

    3. Offloading

      The stored CO2 is transferred to a port terminal.

    4. Injection

      It is injected into a suitable geological formation.

    Durability
    Modelled

    Depends on the storage step

    Once stored, durability matches geological storage; whether it counts as removal depends on the fuel being biogenic.

    What it rests on
    The caveat governs the whole type: capture on a vessel burning fossil fuel is an emission reduction, not a removal. Removal arises only where the fuel is biogenic, and in that case the work is BECCS built on a moving source rather than a fixed plant. The weak link follows from that mobility: onboard storage volume is limited, and the claim depends on offloading and storage access actually existing at the port. The type is at concept and pilot stage today: no documented vessel yet combines biogenic fuel with onboard capture, and no documented case yet offloads ship-captured CO2 into storage.
    IPCC AR6 WG3, Ch. 12

Frequently asked questions

What is BECCS?

BECCS is the capture of CO2 released when biomass is converted to energy, followed by compression and geological storage. Because the carbon the plant took from the air does not return to the atmosphere, the pathway delivers net removal wherever the feedstock accounting holds up.

Is BECCS durability contested?

Durability is not contested: the storage step rests on the same geological basis as direct air capture, and exceeds 1,000 years. What is contested is whether net removal occurs at all, which is a question about the carbon debt of the feedstock.

Why is forest-fuelled BECCS disputed?

A finding published in Nature Sustainability holds that forest-fuelled BECCS is unlikely to generate negative emissions within 150 years and may produce higher emissions for decades than unabated natural gas. Industry contests the finding; the calculation has to be done project by project.

Can BECCS be reported in a national inventory?

Yes. BECCS is the only durable carbon removal pathway with an internationally agreed protocol for national greenhouse gas inventory reporting, which is a clear advantage when it comes to entering a national climate framework.

How is the biogenic share of the captured CO2 determined?

Two routes are used: a calculation from what goes into the furnace, and a laboratory measurement of the carbon in the flue gas. Plant carbon carries a natural radioactive trace that has long since disappeared from million-year-old fossil carbon, so where the two burn together the biogenic share can be derived from that difference. The measurement matters most at waste-to-energy plants, where storing CO2 from fossil-derived plastic is an emission reduction rather than a removal.