Biomass Energy Carbon Capture and Storage: The Most Promising Negative Carbon Technology

The sharp rise in carbon emissions is an important factor contributing to the increasingly severe global warming phenomenon. The urgent need to convert carbon dioxide into beneficial substances that can both generate electricity and be removed from the atmosphere has become a top priority in the development of the industrial era.

To achieve the "dual carbon" strategic goal, we apply negative emission technology to offset positive emission technology of carbon dioxide, so that the environment is in a balance state where "carbon absorption" equals "carbon emissions". Biomass energy carbon capture and storage is a more direct and effective negative carbon technology in the "carbon absorption" process.

Biomass energy carbon capture and storage, abbreviated as BECCS technology, is one of the key technologies for addressing global climate change. It combines biomass energy with carbon capture and storage technology (CCUS) to extract energy from plants that absorb carbon dioxide, capture the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere during the combustion of extracted plant materials, and finally store it underground to achieve negative carbon emissions. Biomass energy carbon capture and storage can separate carbon dioxide from industrial processes, energy utilization, or the atmosphere, and directly utilize or inject it into geological formations to achieve permanent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. It is an important negative emission technology.

In addition, biomass itself has a unique ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the air through plants and certain microorganisms. When the biological residues enter the soil, the carbon can be retained in the soil layer in the form of humus for a long time; Or the carbon dioxide emitted during the energy utilization process is captured and used for planting plants and cultivating algae, and then absorbed and stored in biomass. With the help of photosynthesis in plants, BECCS technology combines "biomass utilization+CCS/CUS" technology to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into organic matter, which accumulates and stores it in the form of biomass. This part of biomass can be directly used for combustion to generate heat, or other high-value clean energy can be synthesized through chemical reactions, achieving the negative carbon emission target of the entire process from biomass raw material generation to utilization.

Compared to other negative emission technologies, the potential of using BECCS technology for carbon dioxide negative emissions is greater. Some foreign scientists believe that BECCS technology is a key technology that is expected to stabilize the global greenhouse effect at a low level in the future, considering the trade-off between carbon potential and carbon cost. The development of BECCS technology can solve the problems of harmless and reduced treatment of various types of organic waste in urban and rural areas in China, and avoid the release of stronger greenhouse gases from biomass waste without effective utilization and natural decomposition. Against the backdrop of comprehensively promoting the rural revitalization strategy, biomass energy will also help rural development to embark on a green, low-carbon, and closed-loop development path of "agriculture environment energy agriculture" in the future.

Realizing carbon neutrality requires negative carbon technology, which is the key to achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions. BECCS technology, as the most promising negative carbon technology, integrates the technical points and advantages of renewable resource utilization, clean energy production, carbon dioxide reduction and other applications, and has huge advantages in creating and increasing negative carbon emissions. Although this technology is still in the research and demonstration stage globally and does not have the conditions for large-scale commercial operation, in recent years, China has continuously made new breakthroughs in cutting-edge research directions such as efficient conversion and utilization of biomass and biological conversion of carbon dioxide. In the future, China's BECCS field will also usher in new development opportunities, strengthen the development and transformation of advanced negative carbon technologies, and help promote the implementation of China's strategy for building a strong science and technology country and the achievement of the goals of "carbon neutrality and peak carbon emissions".