Biomass development 'crucial' to achieving EU climate targets - study (2025)

Investment in biomass infrastructure will be integral to Europe’s climate target due to the energy production potential of the substance according to a new study published in the journal Nature Energy.

Biomass can be used to produce fossil-free fuels and chemicals as well as to enable carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal from the atmosphere.

According to Teagasc, biomass – which is currently the EU’s largest renewable energy source – can be defined as any material that is derived directly or indirectly from plant matter, animal matter, fungi, or algae.

This includes wood, straw, energy crops, sewage sludge, waste organic materials, and animal litter.

The study, ‘Diversity of biomass usage pathways to achieve emissions targets in the European energy system’, was conducted by researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology and Rise Research Institute as well as Technische Universität Berlin.

The researchers carried out a comprehensive analysis of the current and future European energy system – including electricity, heating, industry and transport, to ascertain the role of bioenergy and how the energy sector’s climate transition is affected by biomass availability.

They investigated two emission targets for the energy system, one with zero emissions of carbon dioxide and one with negative emissions (minus 110% compared to 1990).

The biomass in the system consists mainly of waste material from forestry and agriculture within Europe, the study revealed.

Biomass

The study’s lead author and researcher at Chalmers, Markus Millinger, who has since moved to Rise, noted that biomass plays an “unexpectedly important role” in the energy transition.

He said: “One thing that surprised us was how quickly it becomes very expensive if we reduce the availability of biomass in the energy system, due to the high costs of alternatives.

“If biomass is completely excluded, the costs of the energy system with negative emissions would increase by €169 billion annually, compared to the same system with a cost-optimal level of biomass.

“This is an increase of 20%, which roughly corresponds to the cost of excluding wind power.”

If biomass availability is limited to the current level of biomass use in the European energy system, the additional cost is 5% when compared to the cost-optimal level, the study revealed.

“But the financial part is perhaps not the largest problem. The big difficulty may be to scale up the alternatives. Even with biomass in the system, it is a real challenge to expand fossil-free energy to the extent needed,” Millinger said.

“Further restrictions on the supply of biomass would make the energy transition very difficult, as even larger amounts of other types of fossil-free energy would be needed. In addition, we would miss out on the opportunity for negative emissions that the utilisation of biomass provides.

“To then achieve negative emissions in the energy sector, carbon capture directly from the air would instead have to be scaled up to a large extent.

“This is a significantly more expensive technology that requires an energy input instead of providing a net energy output,” he added.

Carbon capture

According to the study, biomass as an energy resource is less significant compared to its capacity to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere.

Biomass contains carbon atoms which have been absorbed from the air through plant photosynthesis thus facilitating carbon capture and storage to occur.

Normally when biomass is used for energy, the carbon atoms are released back into the air as CO₂, but when bioenergy is combined with carbon capture and storage, these emissions are avoided, thereby producing negative emissions.

The study concluded that more investment is required in the way of biomass infrastructiure in order to realise its latent carbon storage potential, which will prove “crucial” to achieving Europe’s climate transition targets

“The capture and storage or reuse of carbon dioxide, for example through the production of advanced fuels, is dependent on large investments to get started, and long-term sustainable and reliable value chains need to be built.

“A market for fossil-free carbon dioxide would significantly strengthen the opportunities for such investments compared to today, when it is primarily the energy that is valued.

“But this requires that decision-makers create stable policy instruments to realise the great value of fossil-free carbon atoms within the climate transition”, Millinger said.

The researchers indicated that EU bionergy policy must be designed to increase bioenergy development in Europe, and efforts must be undertaken to negate public concerns relating to perceived competition with food production, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity.