Accounting for the role of transport and storage infrastructure costs in carbon negative bioenergy deployment
Udayan Singh, Erica M. Loudermilk, Lisa M. Colosi
Abstract
Abstract Deployment of bioenergy with CO 2 capture and storage (BECCS) is projected to be crucial in reducing the United States’ CO 2 emissions intensity. In this paper, we utilize a spatially explicit costing model to evaluate how regional biophysical factors and geography affect BECCS viability. We find that the cost of biomass provision and CO 2 transport and storage are an average of $20/t‐CO 2 and $16/t‐CO 2 for aquatic and terrestrial BECCS, respectively. Assuming rapid technological development in the CO 2 capture domain, this corresponds to 40–72% of land area in the conterminous United States exhibiting systems integration costs compatible with 2030 carbon prices (median $90/t‐CO 2 ). Results are strongly influenced by the cost of geologic sequestration, in particular storage quality (as driven by depth, permeability, etc.) and available capacity, rather than simply proximity to nearby CO 2 sources. For this reason, the Southeast presents appealing BECCS readiness owing to high biomass productivity (several counties with yield >100 000 dry ton of biomass per year) interspersed with well‐explored sinks with large sequestration potential and optimal reservoir quality with permeability >500 mD. We also find that geologic storage capacity is unlikely to be a major biophysical constraint, as sink utilization in most states would likely remain below 10% at the projected rates of BECCS deployment to achieve the 2 °C target and as low as 1% in Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama. The analysis also reveals subtle secondary outcomes; for example, to what extent different regions may be well poised to adopt different, complementary negative emissions technologies based on specific confluences of circumstances. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.