Research study on bioethanol weighs alternatives for second generation biofuels

By Fernando Cunha
Agência FAPESP – Recent discoveries about plants that may be considered alternative and complementary to the production of second generation ethanol obtained from biomass were reported during the Japan-Brazil Symposium on Research Collaboration.
Organized jointly by FAPESP and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the event was held at Rikkyo University March 15-61, with support from the Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo.

The use of ethanol as fuel in Brazil will complete a century

Embrapa Agroenergy – It has long been used fuel produced by microorganisms in Brazil. Ethanol was first used in Otto cycle engines, about 50 years before the launch of Proalcool. Historical records show that in 1925, a 4-cylinder car brand Ford participated in a race of 230 km in the city of Rio de Janeiro, using 70% ethyl alcohol as fuel. Image of this car is immortalized in the book commemorating 80 years of the creation of the National Institute of Technology and is reproduced in Figure 1. Subsequently, the INT was itself made possible the production of anhydrous ethanol for blending with gasoline, allowing editing of Decree 19717 of February 20, 1931, which required importers of gasoline to blend 5% ethanol to fossil fuel.

General information – Brazilian Agriculture, Bioenergy and Labex Korea activities

By Gilberto Silber Schmidt

Labex Korea prepared this page to disclose to their readers information of the Labex Korea activities, as well as technological advances of the Brazilian Agriculture and bioenergy production. The information takes the form of articles, documents and presentations (PDF) which can be accessed freely.

 

Click here to access the complete list of documents published since Labex Korea’s opening.

 

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Between sugars and genes

By Marcos de Oliveira
FAPESP - In light of the number of genetic, physiological and agronomic studies of sugarcane conducted in recent years, our older colleagues might say that the plant is being turned on its head. Scientists hope to gain a deeper understanding of sugarcane and its peculiarities with a view towards increasing the productivity of this plant of the grass family, brought to Brazil by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The ultimate goal is to produce more ethanol per hectare of land. These efforts include research aimed at making sugarcane better adapted to the so-called second generation of alcohol production, when enzymes will use the sugars recovered from crushed sugarcane, or bagasse, to form a kind of broth, and then produce more biofuel. For this reason, researchers from several Brazilian institutions are keeping one eye on basic research and the other on the future of the industrial process of ethanol production. The first scientific advance came in 1999 with the launching of the Sugarcane Genome Project, financed by FAPESP, and the most recent findings from that research confirm that sugarcane stalks and leaves have more sugars—basic substances for creating ethanol—in the hemicellulose fraction than in the cellulose fraction. These findings could change the course of second-generation ethanol production in the future.. >>Continue Reading<<

Source and Photo: FAPESP, October 2012
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Beyond oil derivatives

By Dinorah Heleno
Fapesp – Brazilian petrochemical company, Braskem, sixth in the world ranking in the sector, produces more than 16 million tons of intermediary chemicals and thermoplastic resins, like polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC annually. It leads the production of the so-called green polyethylene, made from sugar cane ethanol, which is the result of the research and technological development work of researchers from the polymer area. Just three years ago it was in 11th place. The rapid rise is mainly due to the purchase of Brazilian company Quattor, the polypropylene division of North American petrochemical company Sunoco, in Philadelphia in March 2010, which opened up operations outside Brazil, and four polymerization plants from Dow Chemical last year, two in the United States and two in Germany…. >> Continue Reading<<

Source and Photos: FAPESP, July 2012
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Court Strikes Down EPA Renewable Fuel Rule

By Robert F. Service

Science – A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandate requiring millions of gallons of cellulosic ethanol be blended into gasoline by petroleum refineries. The ruling is seen as a partial victory for the American Petroleum Institute (API), which challenged the mandate arguing that EPA was requiring refiners to use a fuel that was not commercially available or face fines. However, the ruling largely left intact the rest of the renewable fuel standard (RFS), which calls for slowly ratcheting up the volume of

Are US, Brazil Ethanol Industries Ready to Dance?

By Daniel Coelho Barbosa
Ethanol Producer Magazine - For many years, the U.S. ethanol industry saw Brazil primarily as a competitor. In 2012, as ethanol trade barriers disappeared and weather forced market adjustments in both countries, corporations are noticing that together, the U.S. and Brazil can reach better results faster.
I would like to pose a question for the U.S. biofuels industry, especially those with a penchant for ethanol-based chemicals with higher added value: Have you ever dared to think your business could improve if Brazil were on your agenda?

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Source and Photo: Ethanol Producer Magazine, January 16th, 2013
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Cleaner sugarcane fields

By Yuri Vasconcellos
FAPESP - Direct emissions of greenhouse gases from sugarcane plantations are much lower than had been estimated in international scientific literature. This is the main finding of a field study conducted in sugarcane plantations by a group of scientists from different national universities and research centers. The focus of the field study, published in the Global Change Biology Bioenergy journal, was the emission of nitrous acid (N2O), considered the most hazardous greenhouse gas, nearly 300 times more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide (CO2). In addition, nitrous acid persists for a long time in the atmosphere. Nitrogen-based fertilizers used by farmers to spur the growth of sugarcane are the source of nitrous acid in sugarcane fields. The results of the field study are important because if nitrous acid emissions were to become too high, the environmental benefits of sugarcane ethanol would be questioned. Brazil is the world’s biggest sugarcane grower, with annual production of 596 million tons.

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Source and Photo: FAPESP, September 2012
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Study reveals low nitrous oxide emission factor in sugarcane fields

By Fábio de Castro
Agência FAPESP – A percentage of the nitrogen contained in the main fertilizers utilized in agriculture is lost to the atmosphere in the form of nitrous oxide (N20), the most potent greenhouse gas. According to international studies, if this percentage is above a certain limit in sugarcane crops, Brazilian ethanol will have its environmental benefits nullified by the N2O emissions and cannot be considered a clean fuel.

Conducting an empirical study on the N2O emissions in sugarcane fields for the first time, a group of Brazilian researchers demonstrated that the emission factor of the nitrogen fertilizers used in sugarcane production is lower than the guidelines set forth by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), strengthening the favorable arguments regarding the sustainability of ethanol.

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Source and Photo: FAPESP, August 29th, 2012
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Brazil Expected to Dominate Global Ethanol Market

CTBE – One of the possible growth industries over the past several years has been touted as the production of bio-fuel. There are concerns over the cost, and over the economic viability which have impacted the industry. However the latest report from Hart Energy’s annual Global Biofuels Outlook says Brazil will return to dominating the global ethanol market, but sharp growth in internal demand and challenges in adding new production in the country will mean less export supply availability through 2020.

This is one result of the ‘Global Biofuels Outlook, 2011-2020: Projecting Market Demand by Country, Region and Globally’.

The analysis captures the biofuels supply and demand picture in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific. The global analysis also looks at biofuels developments in Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

“While sugarcane ethanol remains far and away the most commercially viable advanced biofuel option, one of two economic and policy developments needs to occur,” said Frederick L. Potter, Executive Vice President of Hart Energy. Potter emphasized that either:

The price of Brazilian ethanol needs to increase further than that now projected to provide adequate market incentives for additional cane acreage and bio-ethanol production, or
Governments such as the U.S., California, EU and others will need to modify public policy targets that will rely so heavily on sugarcane ethanol and other advanced bio-ethanol supplies.

“To meet the performance requirements for advanced biofuels around the world, countries in Europe, along with the U.S., Japan and China will require more than 3 billion gallons in Brazilian sugarcane ethanol for their respective markets by 2020,” said Tammy Klein, Assistant Vice President, Hart Energy Consulting, and global study leader.

“Further, not enough other countries are in a position to export advanced bio-ethanol supplies to meet the requirements for the U.S., Europe and other countries,” Klein said. Of the approximate 20 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol that will be looked to by China and the developed countries in the 2020 timeframe, Hart Energy’s analysis projects that less than 10-12% of the total supply requirements will be commercially available in that timeframe.

Hart Energy’s analysis concludes that the U.S. Congress will ultimately have to modify the total RFS2 requirement by 2022 and modestly increase the longer-term requirements for corn-based ethanol under the program to compensate for the shortfall in commercial cellulosic biofuels volumes.

The study also found that ethanol will represent 12% of the gasoline pool and biodiesel and renewable diesel will represent 4% of the on-road diesel pool by 2020 for the countries included in the study.

“Of course, that assumes that public policy continues to be implemented largely as governments plan,” Klein said. “Full policy implementation will be a real challenge in a high feedstock price environment. Moreover, governments are increasingly challenged to fund incentives for biofuels. Higher feedstock prices and less government incentives have cooled capital lending in the finance sector as a result,” she said.

 

Source: Bioethanol Sciencie and Technology
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