In cities across northern Europe, combined heat and power (CHP) plants have long been seen as cornerstones of sustainable energy systems — delivering electricity and district heating with impressive overall efficiencies. Yet, as society moves toward net-zero emissions, the very logic of conventional CHP is being challenged. What was once an elegant way to recover energy from organic material is now viewed through a new lens: one that asks not only how efficiently we burn, but why we burn at all?
At its core, combustion is an intentional act of transforming organic carbon into carbon dioxide, harvesting the energy released. For decades this was accepted as the inevitable price of keeping our homes warm and the lights on. Today, however, every molecule of CO₂ counts — and every process that produces it must be scrutinized. The technical realities of combustion add further concern. The very equipment that makes CHP reliable — large furnaces and boilers using air as oxidant — dilutes the resulting CO₂ with nitrogen from the air, creating flue gases with low CO₂ concentration. Capturing that carbon becomes technically difficult and economically burdensome.
There are also fundamental operational limitations. A CHP plant cannot choose to produce electricity without simultaneously producing heat; the two outputs are inseparably linked. While this coupling made perfect sense in an era of constant thermal demand, modern district heating systems experience strong seasonal variation. In summer, when the need for heat nearly disappears, large parts of the installed capacity stand idle. In Sweden, for example, the annual capacity utilization of many CHP units falls well below 50 percent.
These structural challenges are not about efficiency alone — they are about flexibility, carbon circularity, and the future role of existing energy infrastructure. Addressing them calls for technologies that can turn CHP plants into carbon-neutral, multi-product energy hubs rather than single-purpose combustion units.
A New Pathway: The CEREX™ Process by BioShare
Instead of locking biomass into the electricity-heat box, a wider perspective should be applied. Utilizing proprietary technology developed by BioShare, we now introduce the CEREX™ concept(Carbon Efficient Recycling with Electricity to X) that converts the same feedstock into a portfolio of renewable gases, carbon products, heat and electricity. From 1 MWh of biomass, CEREX™ can yield biomethane, e-methane, biochar, and a modest share of district heat and power. It also captures CO₂ directly in post-treatment, embedding negative emissions into the process itself.
At the scale of a 40 MW-fuel installation, running 8,200 hours per year, the difference is dramatic:
- Annual utilization: over twice as high as that of a CHP-plant
- Annual revenues: almost an order of magnitude higher when compared to a CHP of the same size.
- Climate benefit: up to ~80,000 tonnes CO₂e per year, versus only minor for a CHP.
Where conventional CHP can be described as climate-neutral at best, CEREX™ firmly positions biomass as a carbon-negative resource — and it achieves this intrinsically, without the substantial CAPEX and OPEX penalties that a chimney-based Bio-CCS retrofit would entail.
System Role Beyond Energy
CEREX™ also plays a role in electricity system balancing. Because part of its output depends on hydrogen produced via electrolysis, the process can adjust consumption in real time. When the grid is under strain, electrolysers can shed load on a second’s notice; when renewable electricity is abundant, they ramp up. This means a CEREX™ plant is not just an energy producer, but also a demand-side resource in frequency markets — offering services a CHP boiler cannot provide.
A Strategic Choice
The implications are clear. A 40 MW biomass plant can either:
- Remain a seasonal CHP workhorse, operating half the year, producing electricity and heat tied to local heat demand, and delivering modest climate benefits.
or - Transform into a year-round, multi-product platform, selling renewable gases, generating permanent carbon removals, and actively participating in grid balancing.
The second pathway requires a shift in perspective: biomass not as a local heating fuel, but as a strategic feedstock for renewable molecules and negative emissions.
A Twist for Today’s Operators
For operators of CHP plants, this is not an either-or scenario. The CEREX™ process can be offered as a retrofit to existing CHP infrastructure. That means the same boiler plant, the same grid connection, the same district heating interface — but a completely different value chain for the biomass fed in.
For plant owners, the question becomes: is your plant delivering all it could, or is it time to rethink biomass as a value-driven, carbon-negative, market-flexible platform?
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