Climate Neutrality 2045 – Opportunities and Challenges of DACCS and BECCS

Germany's path to climate neutrality in 2045 - on this topic, Helmholtz SynCom, together with Helmholtz Energy, CDRterra, CDRmare, DACStorE, NETs@Helmholtz and Helmholtz Klima Initiative, organized a parliamentary breakfast in the Bundestag on Friday, May 17, 2024. The patronage of the event was Dr. Nina Scheer, MdB and climate protection and energy policy spokesperson for the SPD parliamentary group. The 32 participants were members of the German Parliament and employees from SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens, GRÜNE, FDP, CDU/CSU as well as members of the Federal Ministries for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, Environment and Agriculture.

Moderator Marie Heidenreich, head of the SynCom office in the Helmholtz Research Field Earth & Environment, opened the breakfast at 7:30 a.m. in the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus in the German Bundestag. In addition to the massive reduction in CO₂ emissions, negative emissions are necessary to achieve the German climate goal of climate neutrality in 2045: ‘Today, we would like to talk about the 'net' in 'net zero 2045', she welcomed the guests.

In her welcoming speech, Dr. Nina Scheer said that the priority in climate policy must be on avoiding CO₂ emissions. She underlined the challenge of dealing with the amounts of CO₂ and warned against ruling out individual measures to avoid and adapt to climate change.

Prof. Dr. Julia Pongratz (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and spokesperson for the BMBF research program CDRterra) introduced the topic of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), and gave an overview of the different CO₂ removal methods. She emphasized that ‘in order to spread risks and increase acceptance (…) we needed a broad portfolio of CDR measures’. She presented the advantages and disadvantages of the different CDR methods in terms of storage permanence, storage potential, costs, and side effects. In addition, she raised concerns that the potentially long time scales for upscaling had to be taken into account when developing the CDR portfolio. Therefore, incentive mechanisms must be put in place now to ensure planning security.

After the introductory lecture, the speakers discussed two selected methods for carbon dioxide removal: BECCS and DACCS.

First, Prof. Dr. Daniela Thrän from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ in Leipzig talked about bioenergy with CO₂ capture and storage (English: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage, BECCS). Thrän pointed out that BECCS can be integrated into the existing bioenergy infrastructure and immediately contribute to CO₂ removal. Politically necessary are ‘a framework for action for both, the sustainable provision of biomass and for carbon capture and storage,’ a funding program for BECCS demonstrators and the ‘integration of the land use sector into CO₂ emissions certificate trading.’

Afterwards, Prof. Dr. Roland Dittmeyer from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) presented another CDR method: Direct Air Capture - the removal of CO₂ from the air with subsequent storage (DACCS). The leading DAC approach uses solid absorbers and regeneration at around 100°C. Dittmeyer sees potential for the integration of direct air capture technology in ventilation systems of large industrial plants and office complexes and emphasizes the need for research and development: ‘New DAC technologies need to be developed that require less energy and can utilize waste heat, with components that can be manufactured inexpensively on an industrial scale.’ Despite many studies, there are so far few reference systems, which makes the costs difficult to estimate. However, a price that is significantly higher than the $100 per tonne of CO₂ mentioned by investors can be expected. Dittmeyer pointed to Climeworks' DAC plant in Iceland, which opened the week before and is the largest in the world with an expected annual CO₂ capture capacity of 36,000 tonnes.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Wallmann from GEOMAR – Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel emphasized the need for CO₂ storage for BECCS, DACCS and industries with emissions that cannot be avoided or are difficult to avoid, such as the cement industry. Billions of tons of CO₂ could be stored beneath the seabed. Wallmann showed which areas in the North Sea are particularly suitable for CCS: marine areas without old drilling, which are also not ‘occupied’ by fishing, wind power, tourism, nature conservation and other competing uses. In summary, he emphasized: ‘The most important thing is that we are now really making progress and the laws and strategies are being passed,’ the key points of the carbon management strategy and the long-term negative emissions strategy are already present. ‘An updated legal framework for the storage and transport of CO₂ in Germany and export to neighboring countries must be created promptly. Since the CCS costs are still significantly higher than the CO₂ prices in European emissions trading, suitable incentive systems must be created to enable the first CCS projects in Germany.’

Following the lectures, there was a lively exchange between members of the Bundestag and ministry representatives with the speakers. The topics covered in the discussion included i) removal of stored CO₂ and the associated infrastructure, ii) industrial reuse of captured carbon, iii) number of DAC systems required and the height from which they suck in the air, iv) possible certification systems and v) acceptance of peatland rewetting. Finally, both, MPs (including a state secretary) and a rapporteur from a government group on the topic of CCS, emphasized the relevance and urgency of CO₂ saving and removal.

The parliamentary breakfast ended after an hour and a half at 9 a.m. before the plenary session of the Bundestag. Many guests stayed longer to delve deeper into the topics in smaller groups. All participants and anyone who is interested is invited to contact the experts on CDR. Key messages and contact details of our experts can be found on our fact sheet.