The Engineer

BECCS bids invited for hydrogen from biomass tech

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Companies and institutions are being invited to bid for a share of £5m in government funding to develop technologies that produce hydrogen from sustainable biomass and waste.

BECCS
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The new Hydrogen BECCS Innovation Programme will support the development of technologies to produce hydrogen generated through BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage). The BECCS process produces hydrogen from biomass and waste, with the ability to capture and store the carbon released during the process.

Three categories of technology solutions are being sought by the programme. The first, feedstock pre-processing, is looking for the development of low cost, energy and material efficient technologies that optimise biomass and waste feedstocks for use in the second category, which calls for the development of advanced gasification technologies. The third category is seeking new biohydrogen technologies that can be combined with carbon capture, such as dark fermentation, anaerobic digestion, waste water treatment.

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In a statement energy and climate change minister Greg Hands said: “This innovative technology offers incredible potential for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, crucial to reaching our net zero goals. This government funding will help support the development of this new technology in the UK, boosting green jobs and investment while slashing carbon emissions.”

Applicants from businesses, research institutions and universities can now bid for a share of the funding under Phase 1 of the Hydrogen BECCS Innovation Programme. Each project will be able to bid for up to £250,000 to help develop their project plans and demonstrate the feasibility of their proposed innovation. Phase 1 will then be followed by a second Phase, that will provide further funding to support the most promising Phase 1 projects to demonstrate their projects.

This new programme is designed to support efforts to develop a low-carbon hydrogen sector within the UK as part of the government’s ‘green industrial revolution’.