Global BECCS Potential Is Largely Constrained by Sustainable Irrigation

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), a negative emission technology, has been considered inevitable to achieve the 2°C or 1.5°C climate goal. Although numerous studies have been conducted, the effect of irrigation remains largely unexplored when taking water use sustainability into consideration. A new study finds that although unlimited irrigation could increase the global BECCS potential by 60–71% by the end of this century, sustainably constrained irrigation would increase it only 5–6%.

A new collaborative research led by researchers from the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Ritsumeikan University, and Kyoto University found that although unlimited irrigation could increase global BECCS potential (via the increase of bioenergy production) by 60–71% by the end of this century, sustainably constrained irrigation would increase it by only 5–6%. The study has been published in Nature Sustainability on July 5.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a process of extracting bioenergy from biomass, then capturing and storing the carbon to a geological reservoir. It is a negative emission technology since the biomass is produced by plants through photosynthesis that can uptake the carbon dioxide from atmosphere. To achieve the 2°C or 1.5°C climate goal, large-scale deployment of BECCS was assumed to be prominent in many previous studies. However, this caused increasing concerns on the challenges brought to water and land resources to grow the bioenergy crops. For example, existing studies have showed that irrigation to achieve considerable bioenergy crop production needed for BECCS potential comparable to the requirement of 2°C or 1.5°C climate goal would lead to severe water stress even than climate change itself.

Read more at National Institute for Environmental Studies

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