Optimal bioenergy power generation for climate change mitigation with or without carbon sequestration.

ABSTRACT: Restricting global warming below 2 °C to avoid catastrophic climate change will require atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Current integrated assessment models (IAMs) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenarios assume that CDR within the energy sector would be delivered using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Although bioenergy-biochar systems (BEBCS) can also deliver CDR, they are not included in any IPCC scenario. Here we show that despite BECCS offering twice the carbon sequestration and bioenergy per unit biomass, BEBCS may allow earlier deployment of CDR at lower carbon prices when long-term improvements in soil fertility offset biochar production costs. At carbon prices above $1,000 Mg^-1 C, BECCS is most frequently (P>0.45, calculated as

SUBMITTER: Woolf D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5477486 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature