BioNETzero

BioNETzero is working to enable the realisation of low-cost, low-emission and decarbonised bio-based heat and/or combined heat and power technologies with carbon capture and storage.

Due to the persistence of fossil fuel technologies, the EU’s climate neutrality roadmap estimates that we need to remove the equivalent of 160 Mt of CO₂ per year in order to achieve our goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Biogenic material absorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere while growing through photosynthesis. This means that the process of converting biogenic material into combined heat and power (CHP) is considered “carbon neutral” because the CO₂ released during the combustion of the biomass is theoretically balanced by the CO₂ that it initially absorbed. If those CO₂ emissions are permanently captured, they are removed from the Earth’s life cycle, resulting in negative emissions.

Bio-based CHP with carbon capture and storage (CCS) presents a practical and economically viable means of removing large quantities of CO₂ from the atmosphere, and is the only approach that can simultaneously remove CO₂ while producing heat and power.

BioNETzero's vision

Several commercial, technical and sustainable challenges need to be addressed in order to achieve low-cost, low-emission and decarbonised CHP. BioNETzero will address these challenges by:

• Advancing the European scientific basis of bio-based heat and/or CHP with CCS, and increasing the technological competitiveness and export potential of bioenergy,
• Reducing the cost, and improving the technical performance and efficiency of bio-based heat and/or CHP, and
• Addressing the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of bio-based CHP, including aspects concerning carbon reuse and circularity.

In doing so, BioNETzero will contribute to the novel solutions and circular economy needed to achieve Europe’s goals of transitioning to net-zero emissions by 2050.

BioNETzero’s objectives

BioNETzero is organised into six work packages, which encompass five overall objectives:

1. To evaluate the availability and sustainability of regional biomass feedstocks for heat and power generation under oxygen-driven combustion, with application-based, pre-treatment methods,
2. To significantly advance next-generation oxy-combustion processes through experimental testing and circulating fluidised bed (CFB) modelling, to facilitate flexible oxy bio-CHP, solutions with near-zero emissions, and optimised and efficient CO₂ capture and purification
3. To develop unique and accurate digital modelling-based tools for full-scale oxy-bio-CHP, innovating oxy-CFB to a new generation, and advancing chemical looping combustion (CLC) and moderate or intense low-oxygen dilution (oxy-MILD) to higher technology readiness levels (TRLs),
4. To map the potential benefits, challenges and bottlenecks when integrating oxy-combustion of biomass with various oxygen supply solutions, and
5. To use a regional case-based approach to illustrate the environmental, techno- and socio-economic performance and potential when applying the chosen solutions in selected European regions in the transition from fossil fuels to bio-based energy, and provide pathways for bio-CHP plants as a negative emissions technology (NET).

More information on the project website