Carbon capture and biomass in industry: A techno-economic analysis and comparison of negative emission options

Meeting the Paris Agreement will most likely require the combination of CO₂ capture and biomass in the industrial sector, resulting in net negative emissions. CO₂ capture within the industry has been extensively investigated. However, biomass options have been poorly explored, with literature alluding to technical and economic barriers. In addition, a lack of consistency among studies makes comparing the performance of CO₂ capture and/or biomass use between studies and sectors difficult. These inconsistencies include differences in methodology, system boundaries, level of integration, costs, greenhouse gas intensity of feedstock and energy carriers, and capital cost estimations. Therefore, an integrated evaluation of the techno-economic performance regarding CO₂ capture and biomass use was performed for five energy-intensive industrial sub-sectors. Harmonization results indicate that CO₂ mitigation potentials vary for each sub-sector, resulting in reductions of 1.4–2.7 t CO₂/t steel (77%–149%), 0.7 t CO₂/t cement (92%), 0.2 t CO₂/t crude oil (68%), 1.9 t CO₂/t pulp (1663%–2548%), and 34.9 t CO₂/t H₂ (313%). Negative emissions can be reached in the steel, paper and H₂ sectors. Novel bio-based production routes might enable net negative emissions in the cement and (petro)chemical sectors as well. All the above-mentioned potentials can be reached for 100 €/t CO₂ or less. Implementing mitigation options could reduce industrial CO₂ emissions by 10 Gt CO₂/y by 2050, easily meeting the targets of the 2 °C scenario by the International Energy Agency (1.8 Gt CO₂/y reduction) for the industrial sector and even the Beyond 2 °C scenario (4.2 Gt CO₂/y reduction).