"The biggest takeaway from this report is that the IPCC has SIGNIFICANTLY reduced the amount of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) it thinks is necessary to achieve net zero. The IPCC assumes that, in the future, bioenergy will be used with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). But it recognizes that even then the climate benefits of BECCS are disputed, and that the environmental risks are clearer than ever. Because of this, it drastically reduces the role of BECCS in its net zero scenarios, predicting that BECCS will remove only 2.5 billion tpy of emissions compared with its previous predictions of up to 16 billion tpy. The report supports this decision with statements such as: "BECCS] may not prove as effective as expected, and its large-scale deployment may result in ecological and social impacts, suggesting it may not be a viable carbon removal strategy in the next 10-20 years.' It also states that 'life-cycle emissions impacts from bioenergy are subject to large uncertainties and could be incompatible with net zero emissions in some contexts.' This all builds off of the second report in the series in which it recognized more risks of bioenergy than ever before.
"It also recognizes the risks of bioenergy more than ever before. Both this report and the one the IPCC released in March highlight the major risks bioenergy can pose to nature -- e.g., desertification, land degradation, biodiversity, food production, and water availability. In 2021, evidence mounted showing the significant impacts of biomass on global biodiversity. For example, information on logging in Estonia's protected areas became so concerning that the Estonian government banned logging in these areas for more than two years. Further, new satellite image analysis shows that logging of forests in the US Southeast has exceeded their growth (contrary to biomass industry claims) and decreased their carbon stocks.
"In its moderated language, which must be signed off by all governments, this is IPCC code for a clear warning that, while its models include BECCS, they are just that -- models. They are not meant to describe reality and do not reflect the significant environmental and climate risks posed by this technology.
"But while the IPCC urges governments to immediately cut emissions, protect forests, and use BECCS only in a very minimal way (if at all), the UK Government plans to do the exact opposite by increasing reliance on large-scale burning of trees for electricity to meet its climate goals. Its 2050 Net Zero Strategy, published in autumn 2021, states that it plans to rely on a significant level of BECCS over the coming decades, which is impossible without destroying global forests or carpeting the UK countryside with bioenergy crops (or both). And the UK is already the world's subsidizer of biomass energy.
"We already know the impacts of both approaches. Drax power station recently published an annual report showing it burns over 8 million tonnes of wood every year. Drax is part of a growing global wood pellet industry driving the destruction of some of the world's forests. And the EU has tried the 'grow fields full of crops for fuel approach,' which actually increased greenhouse gases because it displaced food production, causing deforestation and climate damage elsewhere.
"The best chance for the UK Government to heed the IPCC's warnings? Its new Biomass Strategy -- due out later this year -- must recognize that bioenergy is NOT zero carbon and that it has serious environmental and social impacts. It must stop handing over £2.7 million per day in subsidies to bioenergy generators and refuse to grant new biomass subsidies, instead redirecting these funds to technologies that will actually cut emissions (e.g., wind, solar, home insulation to help lower people's energy bills)." (Source: Natural Resources Defense Council,
Elly Pepper, 14 April, 2022) Contact: NEDC, www.brdc.org; IPCC, www.ipcc.ch
More Low-Carbon Energy News Natural Resources Defense Council, IPCC, Biomass, Bioenergy, BECCS, CCS, Carbon Emissions, DRAX, ,
"The biggest takeaway from this report is that the IPCC has SIGNIFICANTLY reduced the amount of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) it thinks is necessary to achieve net zero. The IPCC assumes that, in the future, bioenergy will be used with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). But it recognizes that even then the climate benefits of BECCS are disputed, and that the environmental risks are clearer than ever. Because of this, it drastically reduces the role of BECCS in its net zero scenarios, predicting that BECCS will remove only 2.5 billion tpy of emissions compared with its previous predictions of up to 16 billion tpy. The report supports this decision with statements such as: 'BECCS] may not prove as effective as expected, and its large-scale deployment may result in ecological and social impacts, suggesting it may not be a viable carbon removal strategy in the next 10-20 years.' It also states that '[l]ife-cycle emissions impacts from bioenergy are subject to large uncertainties and could be incompatible with net zero emissions in some contexts.' This all builds off of the second report in the series in which it recognized more risks of bioenergy than ever before.
"It also recognizes the risks of bioenergy more than ever before. Both this report and the one the IPCC released in March highlight the major risks bioenergy can pose to nature (e.g., desertification, land degradation, biodiversity), food production, and water availability. In 2021, evidence mounted showing the significant impacts of biomass on global biodiversity. For example, information on logging in Estonia's protected areas became so concerning that the Estonian government banned logging in these areas for more than two years. Further, new satellite image analysis shows that logging of forests in the US Southeast has exceeded their growth (contrary to biomass industry claims) and decreased their carbon stocks.
"In its moderated language, which must be signed off by all governments, this is IPCC code for a clear warning that, while its models include BECCS, they are just that -- models. They are not meant to describe reality and do not reflect the significant environmental and climate risks posed by this technology.
"But while the IPCC urges governments to immediately cut emissions, protect forests, and use BECCS only in a very minimal way (if at all), the UK Government plans to do the exact opposite by increasing reliance on large-scale burning of trees for electricity to meet its climate goals. Its 2050 Net Zero Strategy, published in autumn 2021, states that it plans to rely on a significant level of BECCS over the coming decades, which is impossible without destroying global forests or carpeting the UK countryside with bioenergy crops (or both). And the UK is already the world's subsidizer of biomass energy.
"We already know the impacts of both approaches. Drax power station recently published an annual report showing it burns over 8 million tpy of wood. Drax is part of a growing global wood pellet industry driving the destruction of some of the world's most precious forests. And the EU has tried the 'grow fields full of crops for fuel approach,' which actually increased greenhouse gases because it displaced food production, causing deforestation and climate damage elsewhere.
"The best chance for the UK Government to heed the IPCC's warnings? Its new Biomass Strategy -- due out later this year -- must recognize that bioenergy is NOT zero carbon and that it has serious environmental and social impacts. It must stop handing over £2.7 million per day in subsidies to bioenergy generators -- and to refuse to grant new biomass subsidies, instead redirecting these funds to technologies that will actually cut emissions (e.g., wind, solar, home insulation to help lower people's energy bills)." (Source: Natural Resources Defense Council,
Elly Pepper, 14 April, 2022) Contact: NRDC, www.nrdc.org; IPCC
More Low-Carbon Energy News NRDC news, IPCC news, Bioenergy news, Biomass news, BESS news, CCS news, GHG news, Deforestation news, Wood Pellet news,
The 11th edition of EBA Statistical Report provides an in-depth analysis of and biogas / biomethane's potential and the best pathways to ensure full deployment in a future energy mix.
The report analyses the current availability of renewable gases in Europe, notably biogas and biomethane. Combined biogas and biomethane production in 2020 amounted to 191 TWh or 18.0 bcm of energy and this figure is expected to double in the next 9 years. By 2050, production can be at least five-fold reaching over 1,000 TWh or as high as 1,700 TWh.
Agriculture- based biogas and biomethane plants make up the lion's share of the total production, which is now already more than the entire natural gas consumption of Belgium and represents 4.6 pct of the gas consumption of the EU. The biogas and biomethane industries also presently provide over 210,000 green jobs that expected to approximately 420,000 jobs by 2030 and one million or more by 2050. The report also highlights the needed collaboration as well between the biomethane and the other potential major renewable gases, such as green hydrogen in future years.
Over the last decade, the delivery of dispatchable power and heat from biogas has been very important and its role will continue to some extent. However, the current trend places the emphasis squarely on sustainable biomethane production, and it is expected that this tendency will be amplified in the coming decade: biomethane is a versatile energy carrier, suitable for a range of sectors, including transport, industry, power and heating. 2020 saw the biggest year on year increase in biomethane production so far in spite of the pandemic, with an additional 6.4 TWh or 0.6 bcm of biomethane produced in Europe. An even bigger increase is to be expected in 2021, as a record number of new biomethane plants started production in 2020 and are due to become fully operational within 2021, the report notes.
Future gas demand can be met by other renewable and low-carbon solutions such as green hydrogen. The development of synergies between green gases will be key to meeting future gas market demands. In line with this, the report highlights the need to develop a vision of how biomethane and hydrogen will integrate with each other in the future. Future infrastructure investments should aim to strengthen the distribution of renewable gases by considering the specific requirements of each gas as well as their most suitable development.
The report points out as well a clear tendence towards the increasing use of sustainable feedstocks for biogas and biomethane production. These include mostly industrial waste, municipal waste or agricultural residues. It is also expected that the remaining energy crops to produce biogas will be replaced by sustainable cropping, for example with the introduction of sequential cropping systems which at the same time allows for carbon farming and revitalization of the soil.
The contribution to sustainability is one of the benefits of biogas and biomethane production for our society, but there are many others. As the EBA report points out, a solid calculation of the economic value of the wider benefits of biogas and biomethane is needed, so that the revenue channels for biogas and biomethane producers can be diversified. The translation of these societal benefits into market signals would allow biogas and biomethane production to compete on fairer terms with other types of energy supply while at the same time further stimulating production plants to achieve the highest levels of societal benefit.
In terms of use by sectors, the need for decarbonization of all transport modes will be especially relevant for the coming years and thus the need for further renewable gas uptake in that sector. According to the report launched today, the sustainable European Bio-LNG (liquified biomethane) production capacity by 2024, considering only confirmed plants, adds up to 10.6 TWh per year. This projected 2024 production capacity could fuel almost 25,000 LNG trucks for the whole year.
The report, which includes new and more detailed
country insights and forecasts, is available on the EBA website. (Source: EBA, PR, Website, 25 Nov., 2021) Contact: EBA, Harmen Dekker, Director, www.europeanbiogas.eu
More Low-Carbon Energy News European Biogas Association, Methane, Biogas, RNG,
The partnership will support DRAX's plan to source sustainable biomass from UK farmers and to develop bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to help address climate change. DRAX currently imports the majority if its woody biomass pellet requirements from the US and its US and Canadian subsidiaries. (Source: DRAX Group, PR, Sept., 2021)
Contact: National Farmers Union of England and Wales, www.nfuonline.com; DRAX Group, Will Gardiner, CEO, +44 (0) 1757 618381, www.drax.com
More Low-Carbon Energy News BECCS, DRAX, UK National Farmers Union, Biomass, Energy Crop, Woody Biomass, Wood Pellet,
The 24 innovative projects, from start-ups and family-run businesses to research institutes and universities, will receive funding to produce low-carbon energy using organic materials. The projects will boost biomass productivity in the UK, through breeding, planting, cultivating and harvesting of organic energy materials.
Biomass -- non-food energy crops such as grasses and hemp, forestry wastes and marine-based materials such as algae and seaweed -- is backed by the UK's independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and is a small but important part of the renewable energy mix the UK requires to meet its climate change goals.
The Biomass Feedstocks Innovation Programme is funded through the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.
(Source: UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Business News Wales, 26 Aug., 2021)
UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_for_Business,_Energy_and_Industrial_Strategy
More Low-Carbon Energy News Biomass, Committee on Climate Change,
In particular, the study calculated the net economic and environmental costs of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandates and found that maintaining the corn ethanol mandate would lead to a cumulative net cost to society of nearly $200 billion from 2016 to 2030 compared to having no RFS. The social cost of nitrogen damage from corn ethanol production substantially offsets the social benefits from GHG savings, the report notes.On the otherhand, the additional cellulosic mandate could provide substantial economic and environmental benefits with technological innovations that lower the costs of converting biomass to cellulosic ethanol and policies that place a high monetized value for GHG mitigation benefits. The study notes that maintaining the corn ethanol mandate pushes more land into corn production which increases the market price of other agricultural commodities. While producers might benefit from higher market prices.
The study notes the cellulosic ethanol mandate could provide an overall benefit with the right policies. Supporting research and development to lower the cost of converting biomass to cellulosic ethanol would substantially reduce production costs and increase social benefits, and a high monetized value for GHG mitigation could offset all other costs.
CABBI researchers hope performance-based policies -- including the low carbon fuel standard, carbon and nitrogen leakage taxes, or limits on crop-residue harvest -- can be implemented to supplement the RFS mandates after 2022.
CABBI aims to integrate recent advances in agronomics, genomics, and synthetic and computational biology to increase the value of energy crops -- using a "plants as factories" approach to grow fuels and chemicals in plant stems, an automated foundry to convert biomass into valuable chemicals, and ensuring that its products are ecologically and economically sustainable. This holistic approach will help reduce fossil fuels dependence, according to the CABBI website.
(Source: CABBI, PR, 27 Apr., 2021) Contact: CABBI, Evan DeLuc1a, (217)244-1586, cabbi-bio@illinois.edu, www.cabbi.bio
More Low-Carbon Energy News CABBI, Biofuel, RFS, Corn Ethanol,
In 2019 Ukraine had roughly 6,400 hectares (ha) of energy crops under cultivation and approximately 4 million ha of unproductive and degraded lands suitable for cultivation of non-food crops.
The State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Policy, the Bioenergy Association of Ukraine, scientific institutes and other stakeholders endorse the initiative.
(Source: Ukraine State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving, UNIAN, 25 Apr., 2021) Contact: Ukraine State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving. www.saee.gov.ua/uk; Bioenergy Association of Ukraine, www.uaeb.org
More Low-Carbon Energy News Energy Crop, Bioenergy,
Feedstock growers typically look at how many trees they can plant per acre rather than the quality and volume of fuel those trees will produce. To address the issue, the researchers analyzed 900 samples of black cottonwood trees -- a type of fast-growing poplar -- grown in Oregon to determine how variations in their size and composition affect feedstock quality and biorefinery economics.
The researh found the amount of fuel produced per-acre per-year and the minimum fuel selling price(MFSP) are most strongly connected to the size of a tree. Since a farmer would only plant the biggest and fastest growing trees, the researchers examined those and found that the size and sugar content in those trees were of nearly identical importance to the MFSP.
Download Economic Impact of Yield and Composition Variation in Bioenergy Crops: Populus trichocarpa report details HERE.
(Source: US DOE ORNL, Center for Bioenergy Innovation, 19 Oct., 2020) Contact: Center for Bioenergy Innovation, www. cbi.ornl.gov; ORNL,
Kimberly A Askey, (865) 576-2841, askeyka@ornl.gov, www.ornl.gvo
More Low-Carbon Energy News Biofuel Feedstock, Lignin, ORNL, NREL, Cellulosic,
IrBEA notes that despite Ireland's natural climate and fertile soil advantage in producing bioenergy, out of 28 member European Union states Ireland is 27th in terms of its use of renewable heat and derives only 4 pct of its energy from Bioenergy. IrBEA also calls for:
The study found when compared with petroleum only emissions, cellulosic ethanol was "78--290 better in reducing carbon emissions; ethanol was 204--416 pct improved, biomass powered electric vehicles powered by biomass was 74--303 pct cleaner and biomass-powered electric vehicles combined with CSS was 329--558 pct superior." The research will next assess other environmental and economic aspects of bioenergy crops.
The study was conducted at Michigan State University's (MSU) Kellogg Biological Station and the University of Wisconsin's Arlington Research Station which is part of the U.S. DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
Financial support was provided by the U.S. DOE Office of Science, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation and Michigan State University AgBioResearch.
(Source: American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PR, EurekaAlerts, 9 Mar.,2020) Contact: American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. (212) 302-6443,
info@aabgu.org, www.aabgu.org
More Low-Carbon Energy News Cellulosic Ethnol, Biomass , Climate Change, Global Warming,
The plant will use ignocellulosic feedstocks such as agricultural residues and energy crop Miscanthus to produce 70 million lpy of bioethanol.
INA manages a regional network of 445 petrol stations in Croatia and neighboring countries.
(Source: Axens, Chemical Engineering, 9 Mar., 2020) Contact: Axens, Frederic Balligand, Renewables Business Group , Director, www.axens.net; INA, +385 (0) 1 6450 000,
ina-besplatni.telefon@ina.hr, www.ina.hr/en/home
More Low-Carbon Energy News Axens, INA, Bioethanol, Cellulosic Ethanol,
Qualifying Universities, industry and non-profit research institutions will collaborator with DOE national laboratories and other federal agencies. (Source: USA DOE, PR, Jan., 2020)Contact: US DOE BETO, energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/bioenergy-technologies-office
More Low-Carbon Energy News US DOE BETO, Bioenergy Crop, Bioenergy R&D,
The WBA emphasizes the need to move away from fossil fuels and invest in the infrastructure and incentives required to build a powerful anaerobic digestion and biogas industry that will provide a stable and flexible source of clean energy, as well as bio-fertilisers for agriculture and a potent waste management and sanitation solution. The key recommendations focus around:
The World Biogas Association is the global trade association for the biogas, landfill gas and anaerobic digestion (AD) sectors, dedicated to facilitating the adoption of biogas globally. It believes that AD and biogas technologies provide multifaceted opportunities to produce clean, renewable energy while resolving global issues related to development, public health and economic growth.
Download the Global Potential of Biogas report HERE. (Source: World Biogas Association, PR, 19 Sept., 2019) Contact: World Biogas Association, David Newman, Pres., www.worldbiogasassociation.org
More Low-Carbon Energy News World Biogas Association, Biogas, Methane,
The regulatory board cited the "potential negative impacts on the environment and the inadequacy of the indigenous biomass supply and high dependence on imported biomass that would be contrary to both EU and national climate and energy policy" for its refusal. The regulatory board also noted previous schemes to establish a domestic source of energy crops such as willow and miscanthus have failed.
The Irish government's national climate and energy policy calls for a complete phase out of coal and peat fired electricity generation by 2030.
(Source: An Bord Pleanala, Green New.ie, 23 July, 2019)Contact: An Bord Pleanala, www.pleanala.ie; Bord na Mona Plc, Mike Quinn, CEO, Patrick Madigan, Bioenergy Division, +353 45 439000, www.bordnamona.ie
More Low-Carbon Energy News Bord na Mona, Peat, Woody Biomass, Biomass Pellet,