A Joint Taskforce on biomass and CO2 capture and storage (CCS) has been established in Brussels

Bellona’s President Frederic Hauge will chair the new task force together with the directors of utility company Alstom and Finnish research centre VTT. 

The new taskforce is established following an initiative by the Bellona Foundation and is composed by representatives from two different EU Technology Platforms: The European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP) and The European Biofuels Technology Platform (EBTP).
Frederic Hauge, president of the Bellona Foundation, will chair the taskforce together with co-chairs Philippe Paelinck, CO2 director at Alstom, and Kai Sipila, Professor and vice-president of strategic research at the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland.
Technological synergies
Bellona advisor Tone Knudsen will be responsible for the new task force’s secretariat.
”This is a very exciting field where industries from different cultures and with differing opinions can get together with representatives from NGOs and research institions to reach common recomendations. We look forward to this joint work on finding technological synergies that can be part of the solutions in the fight against climate change and other environmental issues,” says Knudsen.
Carbon Negative
Bellona sees a huge potential in combining technology for environmentally-sound biomass production and CCS. A possible future solution to combat global warming and ensure sustainable power production can be large power plants fuelled by algea combined with CCS.
”When you use biomass in power plants, we can remove CO2 from the air given that the trees, plants or wchiever type of biomass we use has already absorbed CO2 out of the atmosphere whilst growing. This allows us to produce carbon negative energy”, says Knudsen.
”There are many ways to produce biomass, and some can have negative environmental effects, so it’s crucial that the biomass is produced in a modern, environmentally sound way”, she adds

Source: Bellona