CCS in the pulp and paper industry - implications on regional biomass supply

Paper in proceeding, 2021

The Swedish climate policy framework requires national GHG emissions to reach net zero by 2045 and become negative thereafter. Bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has been identified as a possible main contributor to reach these targets by providing negative emissions - both to offset residual emissions in “hard-to-abate” sectors and to achieve net negative emissions. The pulp and paper industry is the single largest consumer of biomass in Sweden with many large point sources of biogenic CO2 emissions which could potentially be captured. This work investigates the biomass supply required for large scale implementation of BECCS in the pulp and paper industry. Regional biomass supply possibilities are evaluated by choosing four pulp and paper mills located in different parts of Sweden. The results show that regional biomass supply can limit the possibilities for BECCS implementation in regions with high competition for biomass. In regions with low competition and high availability of biomass regional biomass supply can potentially assist CCS implementation on biogenic sources. It is concluded that for a densely populated and industrialized region with high use of logging residues in the heating sector, in this work represented by southern Sweden where two of the studied mills are located, the possibility to increase regional supply of logging residues to fuel the capture process while maintaining mill production output, is limited due to competition for the same assortment of biomass from the energy sector (combined heat and power in district heating systems).