IEA Bioenergy Task 40 “Deployment of Biobased Value Chains” Final Task Report Triennium 2022-2024

September 10, 2025

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(IEA Bioenergy Task 40) The focus of Task 40 in this triennium has been on the development and design of efficient, economically viable, and low-risk (bankable) value chains to support a larger deployment of sustainable biomass for energy, for biobased chemicals and materials, considering food, feed, and fiber markets, i.e., the bioeconomy, and for a long-term renewable carbon management.

In short, the Task has been worked on deploying sustainable biomass for energy in the context of the larger bioeconomy and a future renewable carbon economy.

Within this scope, international, national, and regional biomass trade remains an issue. However, it is key to understand biobased value chains and how to sustainably maintain or transform them.

For this, the barriers and drivers for sustainable biomass deployment have been identified, and policy developments reflected that could foster biomass uptake in existing and new (emerging) markets.

A key new issue to be addressed from a deployment point of view has been the impact of developing carbon markets and of limited CO2 emission budgets on the deployment of biogenic energy carriers, products, and services. The Deployment Task had three core areas of operation which all include Intertask project proposals considering the various biobased value chains, markets, and applications, and sees itself as “horizontal” among IEA Bioenergy Tasks.

WP1: Market developments

• Regional bioenergy markets and transitions: Key actors, policies, and regulation regarding domestic deployment, trade of different feedstocks, and analysis of regional biomass mobilization and deployment strategies of low value-high diversity biomass streams; their future role in local markets taking into account competitiveness with international traded commodities (e.g., biomethane, pellets).

• Sustainable biobased value chains in the circular bioeconomy context: During 2019-2021, the Task 40 Bioeconomy Synergies project set the scene for the nexus of different service types provided by the bioeconomy. Follow-up work continued exploring interlinkages of these service types and how bioenergy applications can benefit from and drive the deployment of biogenic carbon networks.

WP2: BECCUS & carbon markets/valorization

• BECCUS 2.0 (follow-up strategic intertask project): During 2019-2021, BECCUS development progressed to the point where several projects were announced with timelines that could entail some commercial BECCS plants coming into operation in Europe around the closing of the 2022-2024 triennium. This means that new questions pertaining to actual deployment arised, including financing mechanisms and detailed design of policy frameworks.

WP3: Deployment Strategies

• Synergies of green H2 and Bioenergy deployment (new strategic intertask project): Technologies such as Power-to-Gas (PtG), Power-to-Liquids (PtL) and hydrogen (of various “colours”) are emerging and could compete with bioenergy’s role in using existing infrastructures (e.g. pipelines, storage facilities), and in providing flexible services in energy markets (electricity, heat, transport). In order to rather enable competitive advantages between bioenergy applications and green hydrogen applications in particular, it was considered to look into major synergies between their deployment pathways. The aim was to identify value chains that could deploy the synergies and create a clearer overall picture of the promising value chains.

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KEY MESSAGES

• Biofuels will be important to achieve climate targets and facilitating the shift and scale up of (advanced) biofuels from road transport to aviation and maritime sectors will remain a challenge notwithstanding technical innovations and economies of scale that can result in substantial cost reductions.

• Feedstock quality considerations, emanating from impurities and contaminants as well as feedstock moisture content are important, yet mitigation methods such as feedstock blending can help deploy advanced feedstock processing systems effectively.

• Biomass harvesting and processing can be accomplished with a wide array of equipment and collection systems, modified foragers and/or in-field chopping can provide an effective alternative across different feedstock systems.

• Torrefied biomass does behave superior to untreated densified biomass, saves energy and costs along the supply chain, and will open up new markets for biomass to substitute hydrocarbons and coal not only in energy.

• Development of sustainability certification schemes and their benchmarking are important and necessitating transparency and verification of the auditing process from qualified professionals to ensure quality and robustness

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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With regards to the next triennium, Task 40 concluded that a continuation of the successful Intertask work especially on BECCUS should be carried forward in a new Intertask project “BECCUS 3.0” (to be led again by Task 40).

Thereby the aspect of biogenic carbon management should receive more attention as an overarching topic by reflecting on the role of biogenic CO2. As a consequence, Task 40 will be renamed from “Deployment of biobased value chains” to “Deployment of biogenic value chains and carbon management”.

Furthermore, the rapid developments in the BECCUS space, especially within the past 1 to 2 years, with first-of-its-kind BECCS facilities operated by companies like Ørsted and Stockholm Exergi commencing operation, upcoming aspects need to be reflected on in order to allow a successful and wider deployment. A follow-up inter-task project aims at building upon previous IEA Bioenergy BECCUS inter-task activities by further exploring these themes that will be particularly important for moving forward BECCUS deployment.

So far in particular biomass combustion with CCS has been studied. This was mainly due to the fact that initial activities could be observed in this area. However, also the better understanding of the role of the various bioenergy concepts and value chains with CCS and CCU of different size, feedstock base and products are of particular interest – namely amongst others biogas-based capture of biogenic CO2, carbon capture in small-to-medium biomass installations, of which there are many in Europe, and to bring in the biorefinery concept with its versatility with multiple outputs.

Another aspect is the characteristics, role and applications of biochar, a further product of biobased value chains allowing for the provision of negative emissions. Also, the need for a clear understanding as part of the biogenic value chain is seen as vital.

Secondly, discussing financial models for realizing BECCUS projects and the impact of governmental policies on promoting BECCUS deployment is seen as key. Potential business models for realizing BECCS and BECCU, reflecting on the lifetime of the carbon when utilised Page 18 vs. stored, also with respect to other land-based CDRs, as well as respective recommendations for policy development will support a better deployment. In general opportunities and challenges for first-of-its-kind BECCS applications and their lessons learnt should be at the core of Task 40 work.

Overall, it is recommended that these considerations shall result in defining good biogenic carbon management practices and the role of biogenic carbon value chains on the way to net zero.

The scope of work in the 2025 – 2027 triennium is both on how to sustainably transform existing value chains into biogenic value chains and how to make biogenic value chains more resilient when shock events or disruptions occur chains must be adaptable to changing conditions. For this, barriers and drivers for sustainable biomass deployment will be identified, and policy developments reflected that could foster biomass uptake in existing and new (emerging) markets. Commoditization (and international trade) is both an enabler and a risk for the development of biobased value chains. Thus, an integrated supply chain perspective is needed that considers both regional and international factors. Furthermore, competition and synergies with hydrogen markets and other renewable energy sources will become increasingly important.

The cross-cutting “horizontal” characteristic of Task 40 work with the explicit focus on deployment as the central Task theme should be continued supported by classifying the role of biogenic carbon one core driver for using biomass in the energy system. It is recommended that the impact of developing carbon markets and limited CO2 emission budgets on the deployment of biogenic energy carriers, products, and services shall be reflected on. READ MORE

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Work Programm 2025-2027 (IEA Bioenergy Task 40)

Excerpt from IEA Bioenergy Task 40: The Deployment Task will have three core areas of operation which include both Intertask and Task projects considering the various biogenic value chains, markets, and applications, and sees itself as “horizontal” among IEA Bioenergy Tasks. Moreover Task 40 has established successful collaboration with other IEA TCPs and intends to consolidate and intensify the collaboration in the next triennium (cross-TCP collaboration). The next triennium work will be structured in three work packages:

WP1 Setting up and deployment of biogenic carbon value chains (e.g. structure, transitions)

1.1 Evaluation of biogenic carbon value chains

1.2 Case studies of defossilising carbon in industry

WP2 Challenges and opportunities with BECCUS technologies, concepts, and value chains

2.1 BECCUS projects – BECCUS technologies, concepts and value chains

2.2 Continued BECCUS Intertask Project (ITP) 3.0 – carbon management around BECCUS

WP3 Resilience of biogenic circular carbon economy

3.1 Analysis of resilience of new biogenic carbon value chains READ MORE