Installing carbon capture technology on a large wood chip fuelled CHP plant in Denmark

“Installing carbon capture technology would enable the CHP plant to supply all the district heating needed”, is one of the main conclusions from the exercise on modelling CCS/CCU on the large wood chip fuelled CHP plant in Skaerbaek, Denmark.

Energy systems worldwide are under rapid development and benefit from more renewable options such as wind and solar becoming less dependent on subsidies. GHG emissions may be further reduced by biomass-based carbon capture and storage (BECCS) or utilisation where the carbon is synthesized into new fuels to replace fossil fuels (BECCU).

Task 32 strives to highlight how biomass combustion-based technologies can contribute to this development, how the operation may be influenced, what role biomass power may play in various energy systems and how integration and flexibility of biomass combustion systems may take place.

In the absence of full-scale BECCS cases, Task 32 has set up a modelling case on installing BECCUS on an existing, large CHP plant currently consuming around half a million tonnes of fresh woodchips produced from forest residues. Four scenarios for the operation in 2035 were modelled in Balmorel and Optiflow. One of the conclusions is that installation of a methanol plant synthesising carbon from the flue gases with green hydrogen from electrolysers on site will enable the plant to be close to the sole supplier of heat to the neighbouring large district heating system, TVIS.

The work was presented at the IEA Bioenergy/BBEST conference in São Paulo, Brazil in October 2024. The presentation can be downloaded here, and the corresponding report will be published here in a few weeks.

BBEST 2024 – Morten Tony Hansen – Parallel Session 6 – 2024-10-23