Brazilian Roadmap for Sustainable Bioenergies Production: Proposals for Development and Deployment

Brazil has potential to lead the world in biofuels 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 establish its bioenergy industries along with the ongoing effort to reduce deforestation and promote food security. However, Brazilian sugarcane ethanol still faces resistance in gaining access to foreign markets, under allegations that there is no scientific proof that it is an efficient option for climate change mitigation. Despite that fact that new practices adopted by ethanol producers (harvest mechanization & co-generation of electricity) have recently reduced CO₂ emissions in Brazilian ethanol's life cycle, there is still one key process from the whole productive chain not yet developed in Brazil: CO₂ emissions from fermentation tanks. As a large stationary source of nearly pure CO₂, capture and separation is not prohibitive from an economic point of view. Once separated, one finds himself in front of a technological revolution originated from climate change issues. Even though Carbon Capture and Recycling/Storage has potential to impose drastic cuts to ethanol life cycle and force its acception in any foreign market, it is important to identify the fittest technologies among the booming industry of “low carbon techs”. Therefore, deploying an extensive Roadmap to both assess novel technologies and identify existing gaps at domestic industries is an effective strategy to perform such task. The project consists in a series of workshops with academy, industries, government and society to gather all data. The information will 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.