The role of biomass gasification and methanisation in the decarbonisation strategies

Abstract The study explores future development of biomass uses across different climate policy scenarios and under different assumptions of biomass supply availability and technology performances. Broad bioenergy technology portfolios and generations provide flexibility to allocate bioenergy to supply a specific final energy mix and to remove carbon dioxide by combining bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS). The paper aim is to perform a detailed and focused analysis of the availability of biomass gasification and methanisation and the role of these green gas energy carriers in the decarbonisation strategies using a model based approach to see how some countries technology appropriation evolves through the XXIst century. The results show that the future of bioenergy depends mostly on countries bioenergy supply and demand that are partly triggered by climate policies. Besides, very diverse local biomass end use patterns are highlighted depending on local resource availability, economic growth and climate policies. The majority of modern uses will be possible with a biomass transformation through the gas vector thanks to methanisation and gasification processes. Technology maturities and efficiencies are also essential for bioenergy development for the field competitiveness. In presence of climate policies, the deployment of biomass methanisation and gasification increases two or three times faster due to higher competitiveness compared to highly taxed fossil fuel. The possibility to implement CCS fosters even more the use of bioenergy for decarbonisation strategies in the long term and switching the allocation of the resource in favor of gasification with CCS.