Beccs seeks scale in ‘decisive decade’

Commercial plants yet to launch but growing pipeline of projects could deliver tenfold increase in capacity by 2027

Bioenergy with CCS (Beccs) is in a “decisive decade” as the first commercial-scale plants need to get up and running to prove the technology, reduce costs and attract finance, says Jenny Jones, professor of sustainability at the UK’s University of Leeds. A consensus is forming that around 100EJ of primary energy will need to come from Beccs by 2050 to align with the IEA’s Net Zero scenario. This could allow for 2–4bn t/yr of CO₂ removals, depending on how it is utilised, Jones says. For now, only c.0.46mn t/yr of CO₂ is being captured at sites using bioenergy for power and heavy industry, and most of this is not being stored. Capacity could expand more than tenfold by 2027, Jones says. The p