Holistic assessment of Brazil's bioenergetic potential

• Published in: Biofuels, bioproducts and biorefining Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 675 - 685
• Main Authors: de Sousa, Laura Vieira Maia, Silva Lora, Electo Eduardo, de Lisboa, Fábio Cordeiro, Filho, Fernando Bruno Dovichi, del Olmo, Oscar Almazan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-05-2024
• Subjects: Agricultural wastes; Biomass; Black liquor; Cereal crops; Charcoal; Crop residues; Energy consumption; Energy resources; Energy sources; Environmental impact; Excreta; Municipal waste management; Pulp & paper industry; Reference systems; Renewable energy; Saccharides; Sewage; Solid waste management; Solid wastes; Soybeans; Sugarcane; Urban waste; Wastewater; Brazil
• ISSN: 1932-104X; 1932-1031
• DOI: 10.1002/bbb.2547

There is an urgent need for energy sources with lower environmental impacts to dispose of waste generated by human activities. In this context, a holistic analysis of energy use of waste from agricultural and forestry activities, animal excreta, urban solid waste and sewage, waste from the pulp and paper industry and charcoal in Brazil is presented. Based on a bibliographic review, the current Brazilian panorama is presented in figures giving, a vision of national potential for harnessing bioenergy from this theoretical and technical potential. The QGIS3.24.2 Tisler geoprocessing tool was used to generate potentiality maps from census data of microregions and municipalities available in the IBGE database (2022) and in the Geocentric Reference System for the Americas (SIRGAS 2000). The results of map analysis by micro‐regions of the primary energy from agricultural residues highlight sugar cane, corn and soybeans crops, followed by wastewater and animal excreta. They stood out amont the studied sources of biomass with technical potentials of 53.17, 15.23 and 6.81 GW, respectively. With these results, it is concluded that Brazil could enable around 75 GW installed power, reusing all biomass, potentially 12.5 PJ, without considering the 16 GW already installed from sugarcane and paper black liquor plants.