Combining BIO-ENERGY and CCS in Northwestern Europe

Abstract

In this thesis we researched under which conditions bio-energy technologies with carbon capture and storage can be competitive with conventional fossil fuel powered technologies for the production of electricity and transport fuels in northwestern Europe in the year 2030. In the power sector the options of combustion, gasification and co-firing are researched. The results show that gasification has the highest mitigation potential, and can compete with the fossil reference technologies at a CO2 credit price of 44 €2010/tonne CO2. When CO2 credit prices do not compensate negative biogenic emissions, BECCS cannot compete with the fossil fueled technologies. The results also show that at CO2 credit prices above 70 €2010/tonne CO2, and biomass prices below 6 €2010/GJ, the CO2 credit price outweighs the biomass price. This means that technologies with lower efficiencies, such as dedicated biomass combustion with CCS have lower cost of electricity than gasification. The total negative emissions for dedicated biomass combustion with CCS are -929 kg CO2/MWh, for gasification with CCS -789 kg CO2/MWh and for co-firing with CCS -175 kg CO2/MWh. The results for the liquid fuel sector show that the Fischer-Tropsch diesel and DME technologies are able to compete with diesel and gasoline without the introduction of a CO2 price. The emission reduction potential for the liquid fuel technologies are -97 kg CO2/GJ for Fischer-Tropsch diesel and -69 kg CO2/GJ for DME production. DME has lower production cost than FT, which makes DME the best option in the liquid transport fuel sector. In the gaseous fuel sector we see that Substitute natural gas is dependent on compensation of at least 53.3 €2010/tonne CO2 for stored emissions to be able to compete with natural gas. The emission reduction potential of SNG is -59 kg CO2/GJ. The conclusion of this research is that BECCS technologies are highly dependent on low biomass prices, and compensation of negative biogenic emission by means of the introduction of sellable CO2 credits of at least 44 €2010/tonne CO2 in the electricity sector, and 68 €2010/tonne CO2 in the gaseous fuel sector. The liquid fuel sector is not dependent on introduction of sellable CO2 credits.