Can ‘negative net CO2 emissions’ from decarbonised biogas-to-electricity contribute to solving Poland’s carbon capture and sequestration dilemmas?

The article analyses to what extent ‘negative net CO2 emissions’ from decarbonised biogas-to-electricity can contribute to solving Poland’s carbon capture and sequestration dilemmas. From the criteria-based evaluation of low-carbon power technologies it is found, that biogas-to-electricity is among technologies having increasing production potential in Poland. Therefore, in future biogas will be able to contribute to solving Poland’s CCS dilemmas, because it offers carbon-neutral electricity. Moreover, by applying CCS into biogas-to-electricity the ‘negative net CO2 emissions’ can be achieved. The article examines three biogas-to-electricity technologies involving CO2 capture, i.e. biogas-to-biomethane, biogas-to-CHP and biogas-to-electricity via the ORFC cycle. It is emphasised that the ORFC cycle offers low-cost CO2 separation from a CO2–H2 mixture, low O2-intensity, and the opportunities for advanced mass and energy integration of involved processes. Besides, energy conversion calculations show that the ORFC cycle can offer comparable cycle efficiency with air- and oxy-combustion combined cycles. In regard to the design of biogas-based energy systems it is recommended to include (i) distributed production of biogas in order to avoid costs of long-distance transportation of high-moisture content biomass and (ii) centralised large-scale decarbonised biogas-to-electricity power plants since costs of pipeline transportation of gases are low but large-scale plants could benefit from increased energy and CCS efficiencies.

► Contribution of ‘negative net CO2 emissions’ from decarbonised biogas-to-electricity to solving Poland's carbon capture and sequestration dilemmas. ► The criteria-based evaluation shows that biogas-to-electricity is among technologies having increasing production potential in Poland. ► By applying CCS into biogas-to-electricity the ‘negative net CO2 emissions’ can be achieved. ► The ORFC cycle offers low-cost CO2 separation from CO2–H2 mixture. ► Biogas-based energy systems should include distributed production of biogas and centralised large-scale biogas-to-electricity plants.