Promoting pyrolysis implementation was pursued through the adaptation of methods for assessing climate impact, goals, frameworks, and incentives.
The SIMPLY project aimed to advance the implementation of pyrolysis-based PyCCUS (Pyrolysis Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) and align with INNO-CCUS’ guiding goals and the policy climate targets for 2030. The key objectives included:
- Contributing to a reduction of 0.2 million tons of CO2e per year by 2025 and 2-4 million tons of CO2e per year by 2030, which was the INNO-CCUS contribution to the roadmap climate targets.
- Achieving 2 million tons of CO2e by 2030 from a starting point around zero in 2023, as stated in political agreements on the agricultural area.
At that time, the climate impact from Danish pyrolysis was minimal, approaching zero. Without additional efforts, it was projected to reach around 0.05 million tons per year by 2025.
Recent studies had highlighted the significant potential in Danish pyrolysis development. However, time was short, and the deployment roadmaps were full of barriers and bottlenecks. The SIMPLY project sought to expedite the development of necessary societal and contextual frameworks. It primarily focused on addressing two clusters of unmet needs:
1) Barriers and bottlenecks in regulation and municipal planning
2) Development of incentive structures in central value chains
The SIMPLY project built upon the extensive foundation of technical and natural science projects in biomass pyrolysis. It introduced new R&D activities in social science and system analysis. The project framework revolved around the following activity categories:
- Mapping resource base and pyrolysis product market opportunities
- Determining and situating pyrolysis plant deployment cases at 2030 target-scale
- Analysis of pyrolysis and PyCCUS impact on climate and environment and alignment with enacted accounting schemes and methods across governance levels
- Development, test and implementation of new best-practices planning processes for enabling deployment of pyrolysis-technology at the local level
- Analysis of incentive structures and recommendation for need-to-have actions and frameworks
- Stakeholder involvement with focus on planning and governance, knowledge institutions, SMVs and agricultural actors
What is pyrolysis?
Pyrolysis converts biomass into valuable resources while minimizing emissions. It involves heating organic materials in the absence of oxygen, resulting in biochar. Biochar is a carbon-rich material renowned for its ability to enhance soil fertility, sequester carbon, and improve agricultural productivity.