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Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage: burning biomass for energy while capturing the resulting CO₂ and storing it underground, yielding net-negative emissions.
BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) is a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technique that combines two processes: generating energy from biomass (such as wood pellets, agricultural residues, or energy crops) and capturing the CO₂ released during combustion or fermentation, then transporting and storing it in geological formations. Because the biomass absorbs atmospheric CO₂ as it grows, sequestering the combustion emissions can in principle produce net-negative emissions over the full life cycle.
BECCS rose to prominence in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) modelling literature. The IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (2018) and the Sixth Assessment Report (2021–2022) found that most integrated assessment pathways consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C rely on large-scale deployment of CDR, with BECCS often a major component alongside afforestation and direct air capture.
The technology is controversial among researchers and negotiators for several reasons:
Operational examples remain limited. The Illinois Industrial CCS project at an Archer Daniels Midland ethanol plant in Decatur captures CO₂ from corn fermentation and injects it into the Mount Simon Sandstone; Drax Power Station in the UK has piloted post-combustion capture on biomass units. Neither approaches the scale envisioned in 1.5°C pathways, and most projected BECCS capacity exists only on paper.
No. Conventional CCS captures CO₂ from fossil-fuel plants or industry, which at best reduces emissions toward zero. BECCS uses biogenic CO₂ from biomass, so storing it can yield net-negative emissions.
Integrated assessment models often need large-scale CO₂ removal to offset residual emissions in sectors like aviation and agriculture. BECCS was historically cheap and well-characterised in models, so it was widely included, though newer scenarios increasingly diversify with afforestation and direct air capture.
No. Real-world deployment is small, led by projects like ADM's ethanol-fermentation capture facility in Decatur, Illinois. Capacity is orders of magnitude below the gigatonne-scale removals assumed in many 1.5°C pathways.