BIOMASS IN THE UK:
AN EXPLAINER
Proposals are being made in the UK for the development of so-called “Power BECCS” bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. The concept uses wood pellets, or potentially energy crops, to fuel furnaces that produce electricity - from a combination of sawmill offcuts, other wood industry residue, and harvesting whole trees - which is converted to electricity. The theory is that the carbon emissions from wood pellet combustion would then be captured and stored underground in the North Sea.
Think tank Chatham House explains the BECCS process more fully:
BECCS refers to any technology that utilizes bioenergy to produce energy, while also capturing and storing the majority of the CO₂emissions. Bioenergy could take the form of woody biomass (whole trees and forest wastes, such as thinnings) or dedicated bio-crops such as switchgrass, and agricultural wastes and residues. The produced energy can take the form of electricity, hydrogen or biofuels.
All crops and trees absorb atmospheric CO₂ as they photosynthesize. If CO₂ emissions from the combusted biomass (in the case of BECCS-to-power) can be captured and stored, and the combusted biomass replaced by new growth, then in aggregate CO₂ could be removed from the atmosphere. This is contingent on emissions along the supply chain being sufficiently low as to not counteract the CO₂ stored.
In 2023 Britain burned 5.9 million tonnes of wood pellets at Drax power station in Yorkshire.
The UK’s biggest biomass power plant is Drax, a former coal-fired power station in Yorkshire. Drax published emissions data showing it to be the single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the UK. In 2023 Britain burned 5.9 million tonnes of wood pellets at Drax power station in Yorkshire. This power plant plans to add carbon capture technology in the next few years.
The UK does not produce enough wood pellets to supply its biomass power stations and is therefore reliant on imports from the US, Canada, EU and other countries. Imports have been subject to criticism arising from claimed environmental damage in the countries of origin.
Some consider biomass to be a low-carbon source of energy that will help the UK achieve net-zero emissions targets. Others, however, argue that
burning wood pellets emits more carbon than coal and the technology required to capture and store the carbon emissions is decades away from being commercially viable. Drax power station ran a pilot BECCS project
successfully capturing one tonne of carbon dioxide per day - although this would need to increase 22,000 times to meet its ambition of 8 million tonnes per year. Carbon capture technology is also
predicted to have very high costs associated with it and
some studies suggest the UK may need far less of it than planned to get to net zero.
Bioenergy is also considered by many to be a form of renewable energy because when old trees are logged to make wood pellets, new trees can be planted, or naturally regrow, to replace them. Likewise if energy crops were used they could be regrown quickly every few years.
In the UK bioenergy is assumed to be carbon neutral and receives low-carbon subsidies - estimated at £13 billion for all large biomass power plants by 2027 - through the Renewable Obligations Certificate (ROC) and the Contracts for Difference scheme. Scientific experts have disputed the classification of biomass energy as renewable or carbon neutral, since new trees can take decades or even centuries to capture enough carbon to offset that released when forests are harvested.
There are concerns around the
biodiversity impacts of scaling up BECCS using wood, and human health impacts are also an issue of concern related to this industry. In February 2021 a Drax-owned company was
fined $2.5 million for breaking environmental rules at a wood pellet production plant in the US. The Mississippi Department for Environmental Quality found the facility had been exceeding limits for volatile organic compounds (VOC) for years. VOCs are emissions known to aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma or bronchitis and can impair lung function.
