BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage): Climate saviour or dangerous hype?, Report by Biofuelwatch
UPDATE: Click here for a fully updated report about BECCS, published by Biofuelwatch in December 2015
Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is being promoted as ‘carbon negative’, i.e. as a way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thus keeping climate change in check. It is one of several ‘biosequestration’ geoengineering proposals.
The report examines the theory behind BECCS, the likely impacts should such a technology be scaled up and the technical and economic barriers. It provides a summary of BECCS-related investments, subsidies and policies, of the links between fossil-fuel based and bioenergy-based CCS (such as proposals for CCS from power stations which burn both coal and biomass) and of the potential role of BECCS – especially of CO2 captured from ethanol fermentation – in extending oil production from partially depleted oil fields.