integrated food, energy and environmental services production as an alternative for small rural...
TRANSCRIPT
Integrated food, energy and environmental services production
as an alternative for small rural properties in Brazil
Feni Agostinho and Enrique OrtegaState University of Campinas, Brazil
7th Biennial International WorkshopAdvances in Energy Studies 2010Can we break the addiction to fossil energy?Barcelona, October 19-21, 2010
Workshop section 2-3:Integrating energy systems with natural process
Introduction
(Hall and Day Jr., 2009; American Scientist, 97)“Peak-oil”
Scenario: biofuel as substitute for fossil fuel
The most important biofuel in Brazil is
sugarcane ethanol
Objective and Methodology
The objective of this work is to assess, through a multicriteria approach, the environmental performance of an Integrated Food, Energy and Environmental Services production (IFEES) in Brazil
System
(i) Embodied Energy Analysis(ii) Material Flow Accounting(iii) Emergy Accounting(iv) Indirect Gas Emission Inventory
(iv) Direct Gas Emission Inventory
“Downstream”Local environmental impacts:
“Upstream”Global environmental impacts:
System #1IFEESRaw data from field workTotal area of 35 haSugarcane area of 2 ha
System #2Large-scale ethanol productionRaw data from literature (average of 42 ethanol plants)Total area of 38,750 haSugarcane area of 31,000 ha
Current large-scale ethanol production in Brazil
Sugarcane plantation areas
Ethanol plant
Manual harvesting Mechanical harvesting
VinasseSugarcane bagasse
Sugarcane field
Sugarcane landscape
Emissions
Emissions
and emissions
and emissions
Large-scale ethanol production: systemic diagram
Source: adapted from Pereira and Ortega (2010)
Brazil is responsible for about 33% of world ethanol production
The Brazilian government aims to expand large-scale ethanol production: the objective is to replace 5% of the 2025 world gasoline demand by ethanol
Integrated Food, Energy and Environmental Services (IFEES) production: small-scale agricultural unit that uses local renewable resources to produce several output supplying regional demand
Small-scale ethanol production in Brazil: an option
Pasture and Forest Sugarcane and Eucalyptus Micro-ethanol plant Vinasse for cattle
Sugarcane bagasse Cattle (milk and meat) Orchard Vegetables
IFEES: systemic diagram
Fauna
Flora
Baga-sse
People
Soil
Water
Steer (calf)
ServicesFertilizers Herbicides Pesticides
Plastic & rubber
Concrete & bricks
Seeds & seedlingsSteelElectricityDiesel
Natural capital
Wood
Forestry
Sugar-cane
Sugarcane
Bio-mass
Pasture
Food
Horticulture, annual culture, orchard and coffee
Infra-structure
Ethanol plant
Manure
Sun
Ethanol
Emissions
Organic manure
Environmental services
Meat and milk (and negative externalities)
Vinasse
$
Food (and negative externalities)
Wind
Rain
Integrated food, energy and environmental services production in Sao Paulo State, Brazil
AB
Cattle
AB = Animal biomass
Urea and vaccines
Labor
Compost
by F
eni A
gost
inho
Wood and trees for landscaping
Local labor
Food and compost
Brown sugar and ethanol
Results Results: outputs performance
25 times larger
zero
zero
zero
zero
Lower load on environment
(0.84)
Results: overall system performanceHigh
sustainability (54%)
Similar performance for
EYR and EIR
Better cost/benefit relationship
Results: ethanol production performance
12 times larger
Notice: This number is misleading because IFEES produce more
than only ethanol
Except for Hydrocarbons, IFEES releases
lesser gas amount than
large-scale
Better eNergy efficiency
Results: scenario “what if”
What would be the total system production “if” the current 5.5 millions hectares of sugarcane in Sao Paulo State were entirely replaced by IFEES production?
Output Unit/yr Large-scale Scenario “if” IFEES
Ethanol billion L 33.03 1.32
Electricity G Wh 25 -
Grains million ton - 2.08
Vegetables million ton - 5.63
Fruits million ton - 17.00
Coffee million ton - 0.85
Meat million ton - 0.27
Milk million ton - 0.46
Wood forestry million ton - 3.52
Compost million ton - 26.77
Water percolated trillion L 4.62 7.92
CO2 absorbed million ton 37.27 63.88
Labor billion hours 0.48 1.66
26 million ton
To reach 33 billion liters of ethanol per year, it will be necessary 112 million hectares taken by IFEES. This area is 4.5 times larger than Sao Paulo State!
Output Unit/yr Large-scale IFEES
Ethanol billion L 33.03 1.32
Electricity G Wh 25 -
Crops million ton - 2.08
Vegetables million ton - 5.63
Fruits million ton - 17.00
Coffee million ton - 0.85
Meat million ton - 0.27
Milk million ton - 0.46
Wood forestry million ton - 3.52
Compost million ton - 26.77
Water percolated trillion L 4.62 7.92
CO2 absorbed million ton 37.27 63.88
Labor billion hours 0.48 1.66
Should we continue to use the current unsustainable
development model of intense energy dependence, or…
… should we adopt a new sustainable development model of lesser energy dependence, in which energy,
food and environmental services have the same importance ?
A combination of the two?
Source: Folke GüntherSource: Folke Günther Source: Folke Günther
Ruralization
Support Alfa Projecthttp://www.e-science.unicamp.br/support/
State University of Campinashttp://www.unicamp.br/
Research Support Foundation in Sao Paulo Statehttp://www.fapesp.br/
Acknowledgements