Press Release
Bioenergy has the potential to help secure UK energy supplies, mitigate
climate change, and create significant green growth opportunities if
deployed effectively – ETI report
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ETI publishes insights into potential of the UK Bioenergy Sector
Biomass combined with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) remains the only credible
route to deliver negative emissions to help meet the UK’s 2050 climate change targets
Hubs of bioenergy production with CCS appear to be efficient value chain options
UK land is finite and valuable – optimisation of land use, including for biomass
production, will be important
Loughborough, March 11th 2015 – Bioenergy has the potential to help secure UK energy supplies,
mitigate climate change, and create significant green growth opportunities if deployed effectively,
according to a new report from the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).
The Insight into the UK’s future bioenergy sector, written by Dr Geraldine Newton-Cross, the ETI’s
Bioenergy Strategy Manager, uses learnings from the ETI’s Bioenergy Value Chain Model (BVCM).
BVCM was designed to model full system bioenergy value chains over the next five decades to
identify the most effective way of using bioenergy, taking into account the available resources, the
geography of the UK, time, technology options and logistics networks.
It reaffirms the importance of combining bioenergy with CCS to help meet the UK’s 2050 Climate
Change targets through the delivery of negative emissions and suggests that hubs of bioenergy
production with CCS are created to produce economically efficient value chains for infrastructure
planning.
Gasification is also identified as one of the most flexible, scalable, efficient and cost effective
bioenergy technologies for further development as it can produce multiple energy vectors, including
hydrogen and syngas. The report also highlights some of the locational preferences in the UK for
different bioenergy feedstocks.
Geraldine Newton-Cross, the ETI’s Bioenergy Strategy Manager said:
“Deployed effectively, bioenergy has the potential to help secure UK energy supplies, mitigate
climate change, and create significant green growth opportunities.
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“It could play two important roles as biomass combined with carbon capture and storage remains
the only credible way to deliver negative emissions cost effectively and biomass and waste could
deliver a significant amount of low carbon energy in a future UK energy system.
“Our Bioenergy Value Chain Model is a comprehensive and flexible toolkit that enables us to model
how the UK bioenergy sector may develop over the next five decades.
“It helps to inform views on which biomass feedstocks should be grown, when and where, and
which technologies are suitable for deployment across the UK to deliver the most valuable energy
vectors and emission savings to the future UK energy system.
“UK land is finite and valuable but with the right prioritisation the modelling work suggests the
country could deliver sufficient sustainably produced biomass feedstock to make a hugely important
contribution to the delivery of the UKs overall greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.”
The report’s findings include:
 Biomass with carbon capture and storage remains the only credible, cost-effective route to
deliver the negative emissions required to help the UK to meet its 2050 emission reduction
targets
 The lowest carbon pathways convert biomass to hydrogen and power, in preference to
biomethane and biofuels, although bio-heat could be an important low-carbon pathway
where there is demand, and could act as an early market stimulus for UK-grown sustainable
biomass feedstocks.
 Gasification is a key technology for developing the bioenergy sector, as it is one of the most
flexible, scalable, cost-effective and efficient bioenergy technologies in development
 Optimal locations for biomass production have been identified, taking in to account the
system level trade-offs between where you may get maximum yields, and where you want to
convert the feedstocks to energy
 Identification of the optimal combinations of feedstocks and conversion technologies at the
specified locations for CO2 sequestration across the UK
The report highlights the most attractive areas for growing crops - the west and north west of the UK
for Short Rotation Coppice Willow, Miscanthus in the south and east of the UK and Short Rotation
Forestry in the south and east of the country, based on trade-offs between areas likely to give the
better yields and the cost and emissions associated with where demand is greatest.
Hubs of bioenergy production when combined with CCS appear to be efficient value chain options.
The report highlights gasification to hydrogen with CCS in the west of England at Barrow-in-Furness
and Combined Cycle Gas Turbines running on syngas at Thames and Easington in the east of
England as effective combined locations.
A link to the Insight report, video and infographic can be found at www.eti.co.uk/bioenergy-insightsinto-the-future-uk-bioenergy-sector-gained-using-the-etis-bioenergy-value-chain-model-bvcm/
The ETI recently published a report which showed the UK can implement an affordable transition to
a low carbon energy system by 2050 but decisions taken in the next decade will be critical and it is
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important to develop, commercialise and integrate technologies and solutions that are already
known, but underdeveloped. It can be found at http://www.eti.co.uk/development-insight
Notes to editors
For further information contact
Nigel Richardson
Media & Public Affairs Manager
01509 202084
[email protected]
About the ETI
The ETI is a public-private partnership between global energy and engineering companies – BP,
Caterpillar, EDF, Rolls-Royce and Shell – and the UK Government. Hitachi has joined the ETI as a
programme associate for the Smart Systems and Heat programme
The role of the ETI is to act as a conduit between academia, industry and the government to
accelerate the development of low carbon technologies. We bring together engineering projects that
develop affordable, secure and sustainable technologies to help the UK address its long term
emissions reductions targets as well as delivering nearer term benefits. We make targeted
commercial investments in nine technology programmes across heat, power, transport and the
infrastructure that links them.
Government representation is through the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with
funding channeled through Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research
Council who also sit on the ETI board. The Department of Energy and Climate Change are
observers on the ETI board.
About Bioenergy
Bioenergy offers enormous potential value in moving the UK to a low carbon future because it is
flexible and scalable. Biomass can be converted to deliver heat, power, gas and liquid fuels, helping
cut emissions across the national energy system.
Using biomass to generate energy creates an opportunity for capturing CO² from the atmosphere
but it is only effective with proper management of the greenhouse gas lifecycle. We need to produce
biomass without undermining food production or causing environmental impacts – and it needs to
be acceptable to the public with a commercially viable business model for growers and users.
Key facts and figures
These figures are taken from the Low Carbon Innovation Coordination Group – Technology
Innovation Needs Assessment:
 The value of bioenergy innovation to the UK from reducing energy system costs is
calculated to be £42bn;
 The UK could potentially capture 5-10% of the global market within select niches of
bioenergy;
 Global bioenergy markets are estimated to have a cumulative impact turnover of £2-17th;
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Bioenergy is a resource with significant deployment potential in the UK and could meet
around a fifth to a tenth of the UK’s total primary energy supply to 2050;
Biopower systems are estimated to provide £5bn in gross value added to the UK by 2050;
Advanced biofuel systems are estimated to provide £3bn in gross value added to the UK by
2050.
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