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The project will examine and address the key barriers to the take up of biomass in the UK, which include high costs, immature supply chain infrastructure and a lack of awareness of the benefits of biomass in the marketplace. Using the findings of the project, the Carbon Trust hopes to identify potential cost reductions to make the technology more financially attractive, as well as developing best practice supply chain models that will help remove real and perceived risks.
Keiran Allan, Technology Acceleration Manager at the Carbon Trust, said,
“Biomass could make a material contribution to reducing the UK’s carbon emissions going forward as part of the UK’s renewable energy portfolio. Our research has shown that UK biomass resources alone have the potential to deliver material carbon savings of up to 5.6MtC per annum. However, there are a number of barriers to its development and our project aims to address these and accelerate market development. This type of investment and research into the commercial viability of biomass is vital as part of the drive towards a low carbon economy in the UK.”
As part of the initiative, the Carbon Trust will partner with both new and existing biomass sites and their supply chains to develop case studies looking at how best to deploy biomass technology in the most economical and effective way. The initial work with existing sites will allow the Carbon Trust to develop economic and performance benchmarks as well as assess potential cost reductions. The project will also analyse successful and unsuccessful supply models and risk mitigation strategies before moving on to look at the design, installation and operation of new sites. Although the project will initially focus on small heat applications off the gas grid and selective on-gas applications, the project results will be shared and used to help understand the potential for much broader market uptake.
Biomass involves using biologically derived material such as wood, straw, certain crops and animal wastes to generate heat, electricity or motive power. Although burning biomass releases carbon dioxide, this is largely balanced by that which has been captured in its lifetime. The net carbon dioxide emissions from biomass are much lower than the emissions from fossil fuels if the resource is managed carefully.
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