Room: Amazon
Date: Friday, 22 May 2026
Time: 11:30 - 12:45 CEST
Session code 2DO.5
BECCS technologies and forest carbon dynamics
Brownfield Carbon Removal: Retrofitting Germany’s Bioenergy Infrastructure for BECCS Deployment
Short Introductive summary
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) offers one of the few technological options for permanent negative emissions while supplying renewable energy. Germany’s Climate Protection Act requires offsetting 45–80 Mt CO2 yr?¹ by 2045. This study applies a brownfield approach, assessing how existing bioenergy and waste-to-energy plants can be retrofitted for near-term CO2 removals. Mapping CO2 and biomass flows shows that current facilities process about 150 Mt CO2 yr?¹, one-third from biogenic residues. Retrofitting could capture 28–35 Mt CO2 yr?¹, roughly half of Germany’s residual emissions, mainly from CHP and WtE plants, with contributions from biogas, biofuels, and pyrolysis. While technically feasible, implementation depends on CO2 transport and storage infrastructure, stable market incentives, and public acceptance. The brownfield BECCS strategy thus represents a pragmatic, cost-effective route to scale carbon-removal capacity within this decade.
Presenter
Daniela THRÄN
Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, GERMANY
Presenter's biography
Education in Technical Environmental Protection at the Technical University of Berlin. Doctorate at the Bauhaus University Weimar. Actually holding the chair in bioenergy systems at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Leipzig. Activities in IEA Bioenergy.
Biographies and Short introductive summaries are supplied directly by presenters and are published here unedited
Co-authors:
M. Borchers, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
M. Sadr, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
M. Jordan, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
D. Siedschlag, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
T. Markus, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
D. Otto, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
N. Matzner, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
N. Reshef, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, Leipzig, GERMANY
V. Lenz, Deutsches Biomassezentrum, Leipzig, GERMANY
R. Wollnik, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum, Leipzig, GERMANY
K. Oehmichen, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum, Leipzig, GERMANY
K. Radtke, Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum, Leipzig, GERMANY
Session reference: 2DO.5.4