Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) combines two processes: generating energy from biomass (such as wood pellets, agricultural residues, or energy crops) and capturing the resulting CO₂ emissions before they reach the atmosphere, then storing them in geological formations. Because the biomass absorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere as it grows, capturing and permanently sequestering the combustion emissions is intended to produce net-negative emissions.

BECCS features prominently in modelled mitigation pathways assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Many scenarios in the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C (2018) and the Sixth Assessment Report (2021–2022) rely on large-scale deployment of BECCS in the second half of the century to offset residual emissions from hard-to-abate sectors and to draw down past emissions.

The technology is contested. Critics highlight several concerns:

• Land-use competition: large-scale energy-crop cultivation could displace food production, biodiversity, and indigenous land rights.
• Water and fertiliser demand associated with dedicated biomass crops.
• Lifecycle accounting: emissions from harvesting, transporting, and processing biomass may erode the net-negative claim, particularly for long-distance pellet supply chains.
• Storage permanence and monitoring of injected CO₂ in saline aquifers or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Operational BECCS at commercial scale remains limited. The most cited example is the Illinois Industrial CCS project at Archer Daniels Midland's Decatur ethanol facility, which began injecting fermentation-derived CO₂ into the Mt. Simon Sandstone in 2017. Drax Group in the United Kingdom has piloted CO₂ capture at its converted biomass power station in North Yorkshire and proposed a full-scale BECCS deployment, contingent on government support frameworks.

In international climate negotiations, BECCS is typically discussed under the broader category of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) alongside afforestation, direct air capture, and enhanced weathering. Its treatment in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Article 6 carbon-market mechanisms under the Paris Agreement is still evolving.