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Sweden and Finland have national goals to reach net negative greenhouse gas emissions before mid-century. Achieving these ambitious goals could employ negative emission technologies, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, but it is unclear how this technology could be realized in an energy transition. Sweden and Finland stand out for having a large share of substantial point source emissions of biogenic carbon dioxide, in the production of pulp, heat and power. In the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, Sweden and Finland reported 64% and 51% biogenic emissions, respectively, in facilities emitting over 100 kt of carbon dioxide in 2017, while the corresponding collective figure for all European states in the database is 6%. This qualitative study highlights company actors’ perspectives on bioenergy with carbon capture and storage within a Nordic regional context and explores their perspective on emerging tensions in the energy transition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 of the 24 companies with the largest point sources of biogenic emissions. The results are framed around four emerging tensions regarding bioenergy with carbon capture and storage from companies’ perspectives in this study: (1) absence of reliable long-term policies; (2) limits to companies’ climate change responsibility; (3) technical trade-offs of carbon capture; and (4) lack of customer demands for negative emissions. According to most of the companies, it is technically feasible to capture carbon dioxide, but it could be a challenge to determine who is responsible to create a financially viable business case, to enact supporting policies, and to build transport and storage infrastructure. Company representatives argue that they already contribute to a sustainable society, therefore bioenergy with carbon capture and storage is not their priority without government collaboration. However, they are willing to contribute more and could have an increasing rol, QC 20201209

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plays a central role in scenario pathways that limit global warming in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Yet deliberate policy efforts to incentivise BECCS—whether through amending existing climate policies or introducing entirely new ones—remain rare. In this paper, we contend that BECCS must be incentivised responsibly, through policy-making processes which account for diverse and geographically varying societal values and interests. More specifically, we make the case for responsible incentivisation by undertaking a comparative analysis of stakeholder attitudes to four idealised policy scenarios for BECCS, including representatives of government, business, nongovernmental and academic communities, in the UK and Sweden. The scenarios were: business as usual; international policy reform; national BECCS policy; and national policy for negative emissions technologies. Based on our findings, we recommend that policymakers 1) recognise the need to develop new incentives and make enabling reforms to existing policy instruments; 2) consider the risk of mitigation deterrence in their real world (and not abstracted) contexts; 3) employ multi-instrument approaches to incentivisation that do not overly rely on carbon pricing or 4) force a choice between technology specific or technology neutral policies; and 5) attend to the diversity of stakeholder and wider public perspectives that will ultimately determine the success—or failure—of their policy designs., QC 20210319

The large-scale storage of hydrogen plays a fundamental role in a potential future hydrogen economy. Although the storage of gaseous hydrogen in salt caverns already is used on a full industrial scale, the approach is not applicable in all regions due to varying geological conditions. Therefore, other storage methods are necessary. In this article, options for the large-scale storage of hydrogen are reviewed and compared based on fundamental thermodynamic and engineering aspects. The application of certain storage technologies, such as liquid hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, and dibenzyltoluene, is found to be advantageous in terms of storage density, cost of storage, and safety. The variable costs for these high-density storage technologies are largely associated with a high electricity demand for the storage process or with a high heat demand for the hydrogen release process. If hydrogen is produced via electrolysis and stored during times of low electricity prices in an industrial setting, these variable costs may be tolerable., QC 20190715

Sweden has ambitions to phase out fossil fuels and significantly increase the share of biofuels it uses. This article focuses on Stockholm County and biogas, with the aim to increase the knowledge about regional preconditions. Biogas-related actors have been interviewed, focusing on the demand side. Biogas solutions play an essential role, especially regarding bus transports and taxis. Long-term development has created well-functioning socio-technical systems involving collaboration. However, uncertainties about demand and policy cause hesitation and signs of stagnating development. Public organizations are key actors regarding renewables. For example, Stockholm Public Transport procures biogas matching the production at municipal wastewater treatment plants, the state-owned company Swedavia steers via a queuing system for taxis, and the municipalities have shifted to “environmental cars”. There is a large interest in electric vehicles, which is expected to increase significantly, partially due to suggested national policy support. The future role of biogas will be affected by how such an expansion comes about. There might be a risk of electricity replacing biogas, making it more challenging to reach a fossil-free vehicle fleet. Policy issues strongly influence the development. The environmental car definition is of importance, but its limited focus fails to account for several different types of relevant effects. The dynamic policy landscape with uncertainties about decision makers’ views on biogas seems to be one important reason behind the decreased pace of development. A national, long-term strategy is missing. Both the European Union and Sweden have high ambitions regarding a bio-based and circular economy, which should favor biogas solutions., QC 20171116

Renewable energy is well recognized not only as resource that helps to protect the environment for future generations but also as a driver for development. Waste-to-energy systems can provide renewable energy and also improve sustainability in waste management. This article contributes a case study of stepwise reconfiguration of the waste management system in a developing country to the literature of transitions. The conditions for a systemic transition that integrates large-scale biogas generation into the waste management system have been analyzed. The method included a multi-criteria evaluation of three development steps for biogas, an economic analysis, and an institutional and organizational analysis. The results revealed economic as well as institutional and organizational barriers. Clearly, public and private sectors need to engage in sustainability. There is also a lack of pressure – mainly because of fossil fuel subsidies – that prevents a transition and creates a lock-in effect. To break the lock-in effect the municipality's institutional capacity should be strengthened. It is possible to strengthen biogas economically by integrated waste management services and sales of biofertilizer. A stepwise reconfiguration would be initiated by adopting technologies that are already established in many developed countries but are novelties in a Bolivian context – as a response to sustainability challenges related to waste management. The article focuses on the main challenges and the potential for biogas technology in Bolivia and a pathway towards a new, more sustainable system is suggested., QC 20180212

The focus on pathways to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the transport sector is intense in many countries worldwide. Considering that biofuels have a limited technical production potential and that battery electric vehicles suffer from technical limitations that put constraints on their general use in the transport sector, hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell vehicles may become a feasible alternative. Introduction of hydrogen in the transport sector will also transform the energy sector and create new interactions. The aim of this paper is to analyse the consequences and feasibility of such an integration in Sweden. Different pathways for hydrogen, electricity and methane to the transport sector are compared with regard to system energy efficiency. The well-to-wheel energy efficiencies for hydrogen and electricity are used for estimating the energy resources needed for hydrogen production and electric vehicles for a future Swedish transport sector based on renewable fuels. The analysis reveal that the well-to-wheel system efficiencies for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are comparable to those of methane gas vehicles, even when biomethane is the energy source. The results further indicate that an increased hydrogen demand may have a less than expected impact on the primary energy supply in Sweden., QC 20150128

The focus on pathways to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the transport sector is intense in many countries worldwide. Considering that biofuels have a limited technical production potential and that battery electric vehicles suffer from technical limitations that put constraints on their general use in the transport sector, hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell vehicles may become a feasible alternative. Introduction of hydrogen in the transport sector will also transform the energy sector and create new interactions. The aim of this paper is to analyse the consequences and feasibility of such an integration in Sweden. Different pathways for hydrogen, electricity and methane to the transport sector are compared with regard to system energy efficiency. The efficiencies for hydrogen and electricity are used for estimating the energy resources needed for hydrogen production and electric vehicles for a future Swedish transport sector based on renewable fuels. The analysis reveal that the well to wheel system efficiencies for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are comparable to those of methane gas vehicles, even when methane gas is the primary energy source. The results further indicate that an increased hydrogen demand may have a less than expected impact on the primary energy supply in Sweden., QC 20150604

This article presents a novel route for bio-methane synthesis utilizing pyrolysis gas from charcoal production. It is a retrofit option that may increase overall process efficiency in charcoal production while adding a valuable product. The pyrolysis gas from charcoal production can be used for bio-methane production instead of burning, while the required heat for the charcoal production is supplied by additional biomass. The aim is to evaluate the energy efficiency of bio-methane upgrading from two types of charcoal plants, with and without recovery of liquid by-products (bio-oil). Aspen simulations and calculations of the energy and mass balances are used to analyse the system. The yield of bio-methane compared to the import of additional biomass is estimated to be 81% and 85% (biomass to bio-methane yield) for the syngas case and the pyrolysis vapour case, respectively. When the biomass necessary to produce the needed electricity (assuming ηel = 33%) is included, the yields amount to 65% and 73%. The results show that the suggested process is a competitive production route for methane from lignocellulosic biomass., Updated from "Submitted" to "Published" QC 20140218

NQC 2015

QC 20150127

QC 20150216

QC 20150409, Etapp 1 av industrins och Energimyndighetens CCS-program, "Östersjöprojektet"

QC 20150409, Baltic Sea Region Programme, Interreg project Bioenergy Promotion, Task 5.1 ”Mapping the Baltic Sea Region on Technology Developments”, Part-financed by the European Union

QC 20150409, Etapp 1 av industrins och Energimyndighetens CCS-program, "Östersjöprojektet"