Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Rafael Valdetaro Bianchini* (1) (2), Hans-Jurgen Franke (1) (2), Pengcheng
Fu (1) (3), João Miguel Faim Martins (1), Luiz Eduardo Cavedal (1) (2), Fábio
Saraiva Schott (1), Luís & Clímaco Cézar de Souza (4)
(1) Climate-Consulting Ltd., Rua Soares da Costa 135-706, Rio de Janeiro - 20520-100 Brazil
(2) NETLEB - Brazilian Research Center for CleanTechnologies, Energy and Biotecnology
(3) La Wahie Foundation International
(4) AGROVISION-BR Consultancy
E-Mail: rvb@climate-consulting.com
ABSTRACT
Brazil has potential to lead the world in bioenergy production and exportation, supplying foreign
markets and consolidating its position among developed economies. Possessing a vast
agricultural area, innumerable freshwater aquifers and a dominant tropical climate, this nation has
the resources and vocation to implement large crop areas aiming for biofuels and electricity
production along with the ongoing effort to reduce deforestation and promote international food
security. Notwithstanding all positive aspects of Brazilian sugarcane ethanol, specially when
compared to corn bioethanol produced in United States, it still faces resistance in gaining access
to foreign markets. Land competition with food crops and lack of confidence about life cycle (i.e.
greenhouse gas emissions from “cradle to grave”) jeopardize first generation biofuels and
demand technological advances to overcome such issues. During the last years, new practices
adopted by ethanol producers in Brazil (ie.g. harvest mechanization & cogeneration of electricity
with bagasse residues) have already reduced CO2 emissions in Brazilian ethanol's life cycle, but
there is still one key process from the whole productive chain not yet addressed: CO2 emissions
from fermentation tanks. As a large stationary source of pure CO2, capture and separation
processes are not economically prohibitive, and therefore It becomes important to identify
technology to recycle or sequester it permanently. Apart from CO2 management, Brazilian
bioenergy industry begins to look for Miscanthus and other crops for cellulosic bioethanol
production, as well as for synthetic fuels production through gasification and fast pyrolysis
processes. The deployment of an extensive Roadmap is essential to both assess novel
technologies and identify existing gaps at Brazilian industries. The project consists in a series of
workshops with academy, industries, government and society to gather all data. The information
will then be processed in charts, graphics and tables that help managers to priorize actions and
establish efficient strategies to implement a new industry in Brazil without facing undetected
bottlenecks.
5 - DISCUSSION
The Brazilian Roadmap for Sustainable Bioenergies Production will help identify critical issues to
be developed and potential areas of implementation. Research and development, pilot and
demonstration projects will be proposed. National academy and environmental organizations will
be involved in various international protocols and companies will develop multiclient projects
using Brazilian and foreign experience. Specialists will discuss the best bioenergy technologies to
be implemented in Brazil, providing to government and companies a strategic and technical
document that helps to protect their investments.
It is expected that the very first phase of this Roadmap may already encourage development of
other activities for bioenergies production in Brazil than those described in the first phase. Further
steps will also include non technical aspects for the proposed technologies, such as public
acceptance, legal and regulatory framework, technology transfer and R&D programs, and for that
it will demand strong participation from Brazilian government.
The outcome for proposing this complex Roadmap is to help Brazil define sustainable pathways
towards expansion of its energy demand foreseen for next decades. This proposal will help us to
understand how to invest and to increase the share of biomass in the national energy mix with
competitive performances and reduced CO2 emissions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge, La Wahie Foundation International and AGROVISION-BR
for providing valuable data for this paper.
REFERENCES
1. United Nations Natural Resources Management and Environment Department - UN-Energy
Interagency. Sustainable Bioenergy: A Framework for Decision Makers, April 2007. A1094/E;
2. IEA WEO (2009). World Energy Outlook 2009. International Energy Agency: Paris, France;
3. Hansen, J., Sato, M., Kharesha., Russel, G., P., Lea, D., W. & Sidall, M. - Climate change and
trace gases Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A July 15, 2007 365:1925-1954; doi:10.1098/rsta.2007.2052;
4. IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Prepared by Working Group III
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 442 pp.
5. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Towards Sustainable Production and use of
Resources: Assessing Biofuels, 2009. ISBN: 978-92-807-3052-4;
6. AGROVISION-BR - paper 2009: Domestic and International Markets Potential - grains,
oilseeds and bio-fuels analyzing FAO dates from 2006 to 2009 and trends of FAPRI from 2008 to
2018;
7. Vidal, Bautista - paper 2002: "Brazil's position towards the new global environment";
presentation: VII Biofuels Brazilian 2005 Congress;
8. Souza, Clímaco Cézar – Book agr.chains 02: Challenges of Sustainable Agribusiness
Development – 2006 - INEPAD/AGROVISION; Book agr.chains 09: Expanded Logistics to
Agribusiness – 2006 - INEPAD/AGROVISION; presentation 2008: Brazil Bioenergies: potential for
productions and exports; presentation 2009: The New Brasil 2020 agribusiness potentials
Projects;
9. Franke, H., J. & Fu, P. Biofactory for fuel and feed from Algae, Oral Presentation at Worhshop
Implementation of CO2 Reduced Power Plant Technologies, November 27, 2008 - Pretoria, South
Africa;
10. Fu, P. Genome-scale modeling of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and prediction of pathway
insertion - Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, Volume 84, Number 4, April 2009,
pp. 473-483(11)
11. Bianchini, R., V. & Franke, H., J. Roadmapping Sustainable Practices for Bioenergy
production in Brazil, Oral Presentation at 2nd International Workshop on Carbon Capture and
Storage Technologies, November 12, 2009 - Fortaleza, Brazil.
Figure 1: Evolution of ethanol and biodiesel production in the world from 2000 to 2008
Source: REN21 - Renewables Global Status Report, 2009
Figure 2: Sources of CO2 savings in the BLUE Map scenario compared to the Baseline
scenario (WEO 2009)
Source: IEA Energy Technology Perspectives, 2008
Figure 3: left - Portion of global production of liquid biofuels in 2007; right - Biofuels
production in top 15 countries plus EU in 2008
Source: left - UNEP - Assessing Biofuels, 2009; right - REN21 - Renewables Global
Status Report, 2009
Figure 4: Projections for ethanol production and biodiesel consumption until 2012
Source: CARD - Iowa State (Prof. Bruce Babcock), FAPRI, ACTI, FO Licht, UNICA,
ABIOVE, TOEPFER International and ICONE
- Total technologies evaluated/ selected for the Roadmap exceed those showed on Figure 6;
- It was not considered for this phase biomass direct combustion with CO2 capture;
- It was not considered for this phase utilization of sugarcane bagasse for other purposes than
CHP (also not displayed in this diagram);
- All feedstocks are elegible for gasification;
- Pond/ PBR with Cyanobacteria refers to Dr. Pencheng Fu’s (La Wahie Foundation International)
patented technology for cyanobacterial ethanol direct production [10];
- Biomass/ Plastic Liquefaction Plant employs Catalytic Depolymerization technologies for
hydrocarbon conversion in crude oil, which can be refined into diesel for commercialization.
-An “Algae Factory” stands for all types of controlled systems for large scale algae creation (i.e.
open ponds, closed ponds, PBR), aiming for both cyanobacterial ethanol production or traditional
algal oil extraction.