Climate change mitigation necessitates the urgent and effective implementation of strategies within a comprehensive carbon dioxide removal (CDR) portfolio to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, support atmospheric CO₂ removal and potentially move towards a ‘negative emissions’ scenario. Almost all CDR technologies require dedicated efforts to make them economically appealing and less energy-demanding.

As industrial decarbonisation progresses, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure comes online, the wider role of the industrial clusters – that is, concentrated areas of energy-intensive industries – in delivering net zero will come into sharper focus, including the potential to deliver negative emissions.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) systems are a promising CDR technology in supporting renewable energy generation, whilst potentially offering a route to negative emissions.

Achieving net zero emissions through the deployment of BECCS requires an unprecedented scale of operation, targeting the sequestration globally of 3–7 GtCO₂/y by 2050. Whilst BECCS could support the Paris Agreement targets and climate thresholds, there are concerns that the scale of future biomass feedstock and land-use demand may also have negative societal impacts and breach planetary ecological boundaries. There needs to be a coordinated effort that shifts from a point-to-point supply chain to a more comprehensive and multi-disciplinary hub-and-spoke supply chain model. However, this brings additional challenges, including the interactions between proximal supply chains, increased biomass competition and bottlenecks for the deployable scale of BECCS facilities.

Achieving net zero emissions through the deployment of BECCS requires an unprecedented scale of operation, targeting the sequestration globally of 3–7 GtCO₂/y by 2050.

University of Southampton research applied a holistic approach to determine the land-use scenarios and environmental impacts of domestically grown bioenergy crops used for BECCS power. The technology can be used sustainably to perform a limited role in delivering CDR, with minimal impact to UK food production. The findings also supported previous conclusions that larger deployments, requiring high UK land-use, would increase environmental pressures, including for food production and biodiversity. Furthermore, the project highlighted that collaborative frameworks and robust monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems are essential for the market confidence and investments needed to scale these BECCS projects.

The efficiency of CO₂ removal and challenges surrounding its deployment was explored in University of Sheffield research, which presented the capability of BECCS technologies for effectively achieving up to 88% of CO₂ capture from biomass flue gas using a rotating packed bed absorber. The successful system used a blend of APBS-CDRMax solvent and up to 83% monoethanolamine (MEA) (35 % weight/weight), respectively. Impurities in biomass flue gases, such as potassium, sodium and sulphur, do still present operational challenges and cost implications for such systems.

The potential for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through Fischer-Tropsch synthesis coupled with BECCS was investigated using a combined techno-economic and life-cycle assessment approach in University of Sheffield work. The study found that the inclusion of CCS managed to achieve net negative emissions for the system, whilst increasing the minimum selling price of SAF by 7.9%. However, the project identified that the financial feasibility of a BECCS process configuration can only be attained through the implementation of existing policy schemes for CDR and the formulation of new strategies that would reward negative emissions.

Turning to social aspects, a University of Manchester team evaluated the systemic and policy challenges facing BECCS implementation, such as the need for regulatory certainty and public support with particular focus on the industrial cluster in north-west England. The study used an advanced digital twin model via the Carbon Navigation System and detailed biomass mapping to investigate five distinct BECCS supply chains at the Protos site, each using feedstocks from waste or residue and reflecting novel configurations that closely align with upcoming BECCS projects within the UK. However, the study highlighted potential gridlock scenarios with challenges around securing enough biomass to fuel these systems. It concluded that competition for biomass resources could hinder the UK’s efforts to reach net zero GHG emissions.

Decarbonising steel  
A couple of projects focused on decarbonising steel production through the application of biochar and innovative CDR methods, respectively. The findings collectively demonstrate the potential of biochar and slag carbonation as complementary strategies, achieving decarbonisation and even the possibility of net negative emissions in the steelmaking sector.

The suitability of biochar produced from debarked biomass as a sustainable alternative to metallurgical coal, with particular focus on the impact of pyrolysis temperature on biochar properties, was investigated by researchers at the University of Lincoln. It demonstrated that at 800°C the biochar achieved calorific values comparable to, or higher than, coal. Additionally, biochar demonstrated lower contamination levels compared to coal, making it a more favourable option for steelmaking. This is particularly advantageous for electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, which the UK steel industry is showing some movement towards.

A Heriot-Watt project focused on identifying and implementing strategies for achieving carbon-negative emissions in the steel industry through innovative CDR approaches. The study applied a techno-economic model to explore the viability of various climate intervention scenarios, such as biomass-based reductants, direct reduction of iron (DRI) using hydrogen, CCS and, specifically, the reaction of CO₂ with slag. The project suggested that the steel industry could potentially be decarbonised by 2050 if it captured up to 5–8% of emissions through slag carbonation and adopting CDR technologies. However, the model reinforced the need for economic incentives, such as a CO₂ credit price, to potentially offset costs and promote the use of lower-grade iron ores, a novel outcome with substantial industrial implications.

Direct air capture  
Direct air carbon capture and sequestration, DACCS or simply DAC, is gaining interest due to its ability to capture both direct and indirect emissions, thus offering another route towards net negative emissions.

DAC is an emerging complementary solution, particularly in settings with constrained point-source emissions or high-quality renewable energy. However, its land and energy demands limit its standalone viability. An Imperial College London project studied how the integration of DAC within industrial clusters offers specific strategic benefits through access to key shared resources and infrastructure, such as electricity, waste heat, water, and transport and storage networks.

The project developed a model-based tool to design sorbent-based DAC units and used it to quantify the performance limits in terms of energy consumption and the amount of CO₂ captured per day. It found that specific energy usage of the sorbent-based DAC was comparable to other sorbent-based CO₂ capture applications, such as point-source CO₂ capture.

The study further suggests that maximum productivity of the system was low, requiring a large land footprint should the technology be deployed to climate-relevant scales. However, it could be argued that this is still comparatively small compared to the land-use requirement for biomass-based approaches. Furthermore, it found a strong degree of synergy needed to be achieved between geographical siting, adsorbent selection, contactor design and process operating conditions in order to achieve environmentally efficient DAC processes with low energy usage and low land footprint.

To mitigate emissions effectively, cluster-based industries should employ CDR technologies as part of a comprehensive decarbonisation strategy. Industry stakeholders should consider:

• Employing hydrogen-based direct reduction and BECCS to further offset emissions costs.
• Integrating DAC into clusters to address the very hard-to-abate residual emissions while leveraging shared infrastructure. 
• Implementing carbon capture and utilisation practices within the steel industry, including adopting CDR via slag carbonation, which the research identifies as a promising approach for achieving net negative emissions.

BECCS and DAC will become key pillars of the UK net zero strategy but there are many foreseen challenges and uncertainties that require a holistic, whole-systems approach encompassing the technological advancements alongside economic feasibility, socio-cultural acceptance, and robust political and regulatory frameworks to their deployment.

Since its launch in 2021, the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) has funded 100 projects exploring the key dimensions of the whole system of industrial decarbonisation. That work is brought together in the 2025 Frontiers Report series.

• Further reading: ‘Decarbonising UK industry: IDRIC’s transformative impact’. Since its launch in 2021, IDRIC has developed an influential network of over 700 industries, trade associations, governmental/public bodies and research institutions, to accelerate the pace and scale of industrial decarbonisation. As the organisation nears the end of its current phase of work, its Director, Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, also Robert Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, looks back over four busy years.
• Find more about Drax and Stockholm Exergi’s new methodology for BECCS-derived CO₂ removal credits that aims to ensure a high standard of integrity and positively impact the global CDR market.