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Corporate image, European Emission Trading System and Environmental Regulations, encourage pulp industry to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Kraft pulp mills produce CO2 mainly in combustion processes. The largest sources are the recovery boiler, the biomass boiler, and the lime kiln. Due to utilizing mostly biomass-based fuels, the CO2 is largely biogenic. Capture and storage of CO2 (CCS) could offer pulp and paper industry the possibility to act as site for negative CO2 emissions. In addition, captured biogenic CO2 can be used as a raw material for bioproducts. Possibilities for CO2 utilization include tall oil manufacturing, lignin extraction, and production of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), depending on local conditions and mill-specific details. In this study, total biomass-based CO2 capture and storage potential (BECCS) and potential to implement capture and utilization of biomass-based CO2 (BECCU) in kraft pulp mills were estimated by analyzing the impacts of the processes on the operation of two modern reference mills, a Nordic softwood kraft pulp mill with integrated paper production and a Southern eucalyptus kraft pulp mill. CO2 capture is energy-intensive, and thus the effects on the energy balances of the mills were estimated. When papermaking is integrated in the mill operations, energy adequacy can be a limiting factor for carbon capture implementation. Global carbon capture potential was estimated based on pulp production data. Kraft pulp mills have notable CO2 capture potential, while the on-site utilization potential using currently available technologies is lower. The future of these processes depends on technology development, desire to reuse CO2, and prospective changes in legislation.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) provides a solution toward decarbonization of the global economy. The success of this solution depends on the ability to safely and permanently store CO₂. This study demonstrates for the first time the permanent disposal of CO₂ as environmentally benign carbonate minerals in basaltic rocks. We find that over 95% of the CO₂ injected into the CarbFix site in Iceland was mineralized to carbonate minerals in less than 2 years. The result contrasts with the common view that the immobilization of CO₂ as carbonate minerals within geologic reservoirs takes several hundreds to thousands of years. Our results, therefore, demonstrate that the safe long-term storage of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions through mineralization can be far faster than previously postulated.

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a combustion process with inherent separation of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is achieved by oxidizing the fuel with a solid oxygen carrier rather than with air. As fuel and combustion air are never mixed, no gas separation is necessary and, consequently, there is no direct cost or energy penalty for the separation of gases. The most common form of design of chemical-looping combustion systems uses circulating fluidized beds, which is an established and widely spread technology. Experiments were conducted in two different laboratory-scale CLC reactors with continuous fuel feeding and nominal fuel inputs of 300 Wth and 10 kWth, respectively. As an oxygen carrier material, ground steel converter slag from the Linz–Donawitz process was used. This material is the second largest flow in an integrated steel mill and it is available in huge quantities, for which there is currently limited demand. Steel converter slag consists mainly of oxides of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), silicon (Si), and manganese (Mn). In the 300 W unit, chemical-looping combustion experiments were conducted with model fuels syngas (50 vol% hydrogen (H2) in carbon monoxide (CO)) and methane (CH4) at varied reactor temperature, fuel input, and oxygen-carrier circulation. Further, the ability of the oxygen-carrier material to release oxygen to the gas phase was investigated. In the 10 kW unit, the fuels used for combustion tests were steam-exploded pellets and wood char. The purpose of these experiments was to study more realistic biomass fuels and to assess the lifetime of the slag when employed as oxygen carrier. In addition, chemical-looping gasification was investigated in the 10 kW unit using both steam-exploded pellets and regular wood pellets as fuels. In the 300 W unit, up to 99.9% of syngas conversion was achieved at 280 kg/MWth and 900 °C, while the highest conversion achieved with methane was 60% at 280 kg/MWth and 950 °C. The material’s ability to release oxygen to the gas phase, i.e., CLOU property, was developed during the initial hours with fuel operation and the activated material released 1–2 vol% of O2 into a flow of argon between 850 and 950 °C. The material’s initial low density decreased somewhat during CLC operation. In the 10 kW, CO2 yields of 75–82% were achieved with all three fuels tested in CLC conditions, while carbon leakage was very low in most cases, i.e., below 1%. With wood char as fuel, at a fuel input of 1.8 kWth, a CO2 yield of 92% could be achieved. The carbon fraction of C2-species was usually below 2.5% and no C3-species were detected. During chemical-looping gasification investigation a raw gas was produced that contained mostly H2. The oxygen carrier lifetime was estimated to be about 110–170 h. However, due to its high availability and potentially low cost, this type of slag could be suitable for large-scale operation. The study also includes a discussion on the potential advantages of this technology over other technologies available for Bio-Energy Carbon Capture and Storage, BECCS. Furthermore, the paper calls for the use of adequate policy instruments to foster the development of this kind of technologies, with great potential for cost reduction but presently without commercial application because of lack of incentives.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology could provide a technological bridge for achieving near to midterm GHG emission reduction goals. Integrated CCS technology is still under development and has noteworthy challenges, which would be possible to overcome through the implementation of large-scale demonstration projects. In order to assist developing countries to better understand issues related to potential technology deployment, there is a need to start analyzing various numerous challenges facing CCS within the economic and legal context of developing countries and countries in transition. This report is the first effort of the World Bank Group to contribute to a deeper understanding of (a) the integration of power generation with CCS technologies, as well as their costs; (b) regulatory barriers to the deployment of CCS; and (c) global financing requirements for CCS and applicable project finance structures involving instruments of multilateral development institutions. This report does not provide prescriptive solutions to overcome these barriers, since action must be taken on a country-by-country basis, taking account of different circumstances and national policies. Individual governments should decide their priorities on climate change mitigation and adopt appropriate measures accordingly. The analyses presented in this report may take on added relevance, depending on the future direction of international climate negotiations and domestic legal and policy measures in both developed and developing countries, and how they serve to encourage carbon sequestration. We expect that this report will provide insights for policy makers, stakeholders, private financiers, and donors in meeting the challenges of the deployment of climate change mitigation technologies and CCS in particular.

Most studies of deep decarbonization find that a diverse portfolio of low-carbon energy technologies will be required, including carbon capture and storage (CCS) that mitigates emissions from fossil fuel power plants and industrial sources. While many projects essential to commercializing the technology have been proposed, most (>80%) end in failure. Here we analyze the full universe of CCS projects attempted in the U.S. that have sufficient documentation (N=39)-the largest sample ever studied systematically. We quantify 12 project attributes that the literature has identified as possible determinants of project outcome. In addition to costs and technological readiness, which prior research has emphasized, we develop metrics for attributes that are widely thought to be important yet have eluded systematic measurement, such as the credibility of project revenues and policy incentives, and the role of regulatory complexity and public opposition. We build three models-two statistical and one derived through the elicitation of expert judgment-to evaluate the relative influence of these 12 attributes in explaining project outcome. Across models, we find the credibility of revenues and incentives to be among the most important attributes, along with capital cost and technological readiness. We therefore develop and elicit experts' judgment of 14 types of policy incentives that could alter these attributes and improve the prospects for investment in CCS. Knowing which attributes have been most responsible for past successes and failures allows developers to avoid past mistakes and identify clusters of near-term CCS projects that are more likely to succeed.

One of the main bottlenecks to deploying large-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) in power plants is the energy required to separate the CO 2 from flue gas. For example, near-term CCS technology applied to coal-fired power plants is projected to reduce the net output of the plant by some 30% and to increase the cost of electricity by 60–80%. Developing capture materials and processes that reduce the parasitic energy imposed by CCS is therefore an important area of research. We have developed a computational approach to rank adsorbents for their performance in CCS. Using this analysis, we have screened hundreds of thousands of zeolite and zeolitic imidazolate framework structures and identified many different structures that have the potential to reduce the parasitic energy of CCS by 30–40% compared with near-term technologies. Developing capture materials and processes that reduce the energy required to separate carbon dioxide from flue gas in power plants is an important area of research. A computational approach to rank adsorbents for their performance in carbon dioxide capture and storage is now proposed, which will enable hundreds of thousands of zeolitic structures to be screened.

Negative emission technologies (NETs) are a set of technologies that could retrieve greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. NETs could dramatically contribute to maintaining the temperature increase to within the limit of 2 °C or even 1.5 °C. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is one of the most studied NETs. BECCS captures carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions coming from a bioenergy plant—e.g., electricity, biofuels, and hydrogen—and stores those emissions in a geologic reservoir, typically a saline aquifer. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether a research community exists on BECCS, and whether it is aligned with research priorities. To do so, a bibliometric analysis is conducted based on author collaborations on BECCS in academic journals between 2001 and 2017. The co-authorship network shows that BECCS research is largely based on the integrated assessment model (IAM) research community. These models analyze how power and transportation systems evolve under a climate constraint in the long run, e.g., until 2100. Such a focus has advantages and drawbacks. On the one hand, it helps to build a common vision of the technology and possible roadmaps. On the other hand, I highlight that the implementation features of BECCS in the near future are insufficiently assessed, e.g., techno-economic analyses, business models, local-scale assessments, and comparison with other NETs. These issues are marginal in the network, whereas long-term analyses are at its core. Future research programmes should better include them to avoid a considerable disappointment about the real potential of BECCS.

Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is heavily relied upon in scenarios of future emissions that are consistent with limiting global mean temperature increase to 1.5 °C or 2 °C above pre-industrial. These temperature limits are defined in the Paris Agreement in order to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. Here, we explore the use of BECCS technologies in a reference scenario and three low emission scenarios generated by an integrated assessment model (IMAGE). Using these scenarios we investigate the feasibility of key implicit and explicit assumptions about these BECCS technologies, including biomass resource, land use, CO2 storage capacity and carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment rate. In these scenarios, we find that half of all global CO2 storage required by 2100 occurs in USA, Western Europe, China and India, which is compatible with current estimates of regional CO2 storage capacity. CCS deployment rates in the scenarios are very challenging compared to historical rates of fossil, renewable or nuclear technologies and are entirely dependent on stringent policy action to incentivise CCS. In the scenarios, half of the biomass resource is derived from agricultural and forestry residues and half from dedicated bioenergy crops grown on abandoned agricultural land and expansion into grasslands (i.e. land for forests and food production is protected). Poor governance of the sustainability of bioenergy crop production can significantly limit the amount of CO2 removed by BECCS, through soil carbon loss from direct and indirect land use change. Only one-third of the bioenergy crops are grown in regions associated with more developed governance frameworks. Overall, the scenarios in IMAGE are ambitious but consistent with current relevant literature with respect to assumed biomass resource, land use and CO2 storage capacity.

Limiting global warming to under 2 °C would require stringent mitigation and likely additional carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to compensate for otherwise unabated emissions. Because of its technology readiness, relatively low cost, and potential co-benefits, the application of biochar to soils could be an effective CDR strategy. We use the Global Change Analysis Model, a global multisector model, to analyze biochar deployment in the context of energy system uses of biomass with CDR under different carbon price trajectories. We find that biochar can create an annual sink of up to 2.8 GtCO2 per year, reducing global mean temperature increases by an additional 0.5%–1.8% across scenarios by 2100 for a given carbon price path. In our scenarios, biochar's deployment is dependent on potential crop yield gains and application rates, and the competition for resources with other CDR measures. We find that biochar can serve as a competitive CDR strategy, especially at lower carbon prices when bioenergy with carbon capture and storage is not yet economical.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is envisaged as a critical element of most deep decarbonisation pathways compatible with the Paris Agreement. Such a transformational upscaling-to 3-7 Gt CO2/yr by 2050-requires an unprecedented technological, economic, socio-cultural and political effort, along with, crucially, transparent communication between all stakeholders. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) that underpin the 1.5 °C scenarios assessed by IPCC have played a critical role in building and assessing deep decarbonisation narratives. However, their high-level aggregation and their complexity can cause them to be perceived as non-transparent by stakeholders outside of the IAM community. This paper bridges this gap by offering a comprehensive assessment of BECCS assumptions as used in IAMs so as to open them to a wider audience. We focus on key assumptions that underpin five aspects of BECCS: biomass availability, BECCS technologies, CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, BECCS costs, and wider system conditions which favour the deployment of BECCS. Through a structured review, we find that all IAMs communicate wider system assumptions and major cost assumptions transparently. This quality however fades as we dig deeper into modelling details. This is particularly true for sets of technological elements such as CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, for which we found the least transparent assumptions. We also found that IAMs are less transparent on the completeness of their treatment of the five BECCS aspects we investigated, and not transparent regarding the inclusion and treatment of socio-cultural and institutional-regulatory dimensions of feasibility which are key BECCS elements as suggested by the IPCC. We conclude with a practical discussion around ways of increasing IAM transparency as a bridge between this community and stakeholders from other disciplines, policy decision makers, financiers, and the public.