Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)

Click to view/download.

BECCS is an innovative technology that has been developed to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

BECCS provides negative emissions, as well as stable, renewable electricity and will play a vital role in tackling the climate crisis and supporting energy security.  

What is BECCS?

Negative emissions are created when you permanently remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than is created across your operations.  

With BECCS, flue gases are produced when sustainable biomass is used to generate renewable electricity, these gasses are captured through a chemical reaction. The captured CO2 is then stored permanently in deposits such as saline aquifers found under the sea. The process of electricity generation becomes carbon negative, as more CO2 has been removed from the atmosphere than has been added. 

What are negative emissions?

Yes. Drax has been testing a number of carbon capture technologies since our first trial began in 2018.  

Carbon capture technology is not new and has been used in the fossil fuel and oil & gas industries for many years. There are currently 26 CCS facilities operating worldwide, with a further 39 either planned or under construction.

Research commissioned by Drax shows there is enough sustainable biomass available globally to support BECCS projects to capture up to 4GT of CO2 without adversely impacting forest health, biodiversity or food security.

This is equivalent to four times the annual CO2 emissions from commercial aviation. 

Learn more about sustainable biomass

BECCS by Drax offers a decarbonisation route that protects and creates jobs retaining high-quality jobs and boosting local economies.

BECCS at Drax Power Station could create and support over 10,000 jobs locally and across the entire supply chain. By deploying cutting-edge green technologies across the Humber, this could rise to 47,800 jobs at peak, according to a report by Vivid Economics. 

BECCS careers

In the current economic climate, it’s vital that new projects such as BECCS provide cost effective solutions that not only support energy security, but also deliver on net zero targets.  

By having the right policies which incentivise investment we could see a repeat of the success seen with the CfDs for offshore wind – that sector has reached grid parity and no longer requires subsidies. 

A recent report commissioned by Drax by consultancy Frontier Economics looked into the optimum funding methods that would allow negative emissions technologies like BECCS be delivered cost effectively.  

The Drax BECCS project would be financed through private investment. However, as negative emissions in the UK are not currently rewarded or incentivised today, we need the UK Government to create an investment framework that would provide the necessary confidence to Drax and its investors to commit capital to the project.  

This approach has been very successful previously with the support given to renewables like wind, solar and biomass – as a result the UK’s electricity system has decarbonised at a faster rate than any other country’s.

Yes. Drax, alongside our partners – National Grid Ventures and Equinor – have decades of experience safely transporting gas by pipeline and injecting and storing CO2 in saline aquifers offshore.  

In the UK, the North Sea is already home to significant CCS projects such as the Equinor-operated Sleipner field in the Norwegian sector which is now capturing and storing around 1 million tonnes of CO2 each year from natural gas. Since the Sleipner project started in 1996 around 20 million tonnes of CO2 has been safely captured and stored under the seabed.

Estimates suggest the UK could have up to 80 billion tonnes of CO2 storage accessible offshore, and the Sleipner field CCS project demonstrates the feasibility of this technology and the potential for Britain to use the North Sea in the fight against climate change. 

Transporting carbon – How to safely move CO₂ from the atmosphere to permanent storage