Can carbon capture be a new revenue opportunity for the pulp and paper sector?

Abstract

Transition towards carbon neutrality will require application of negative carbon emission technologies (NETs). This creates a new opportunity for the industry in the near future. The pulp and paper industry already utilizes vast amounts of biomass and produces large amounts of biogenic carbon dioxide. The industry is well poised for the use of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), which is considered as one of the key NETs. If the captured carbon dioxide can be used to manufacture green fuels to replace fossil ones, then this will generate a huge additional market where pulp and paper mills are on the front line. The objective of this study is to evaluate future trends and policies affecting the pulp and paper industry and to describe how a carbon neutral or carbon negative pulp and paper production process can be viable. Such policies include, as examples, price of carbon dioxide allowances or support for green fuel production and BECCS implementation. It is known that profitability differs depending on mill type, performance, energy efficiency, or carbon dioxide intensity. The results give fresh understanding on the potential for investing in negative emission technologies. Carbon capture or green fuel production can be economical with an emission trade system, depending on electricity price, green fuel price, negative emission credit, and a mill’s emission profile. However, feasibility does not seem to evidently correlate with the performance, technical age, or the measured efficiency of the mill.

Integration of carbon capture in a pulp mill—effect of strategic development towards better biomass resource utilization

“…In the end, the deciding factor between these different options for configuration and design of the capture plant will be the expected technoeconomic performance, which in turn depends on the future value of the captured biogenic CO 2 , the lignin product, as well as electricity and fuel prices. As thoroughly discussed and investigated by Kuparinen et al (2021) and Kuparinen et al (2023), the value of the captured biogenic CO 2 depends on future markets for green products that can be synthesized from the CO 2 (e.g., methanol), or the value of carbon removal credits. In the case of using CO 2 for carbon removals (negative emissions), it has also been shown that even though costs for capture and liquefaction dominate the costs for CCS, transport logistics and infrastructure are also deciding factors in the techno-economic evaluation of CCS (Karlsson et al, 2023).…”