Life cycle assessment of biomass pellets production for the strenghtening of the bioeconomy and the SICV Brasil database

• Grant number: 19/16996-4
• Support Opportunities: Program for Research on Bioenergy (BIOEN) - Regular Program Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2020
• End date: January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Forest Biomass Energy
• Principal Investigator: Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva
• Grantee: Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências em Gestão e Tecnologia (CCGT). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). Campus de Sorocaba. Sorocaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: FÁBIO MINORU YAMAJI ; Fausto Miguel Cereja Seixas Freire ; Luciano Donizeti Varanda ; Thiago Oliveira Rodrigues

Abstract

Promoting sustainable production is one of the main challenges of the Agenda 2030 proposed by the United Nations for Environment. For this, the development of Bioeconomics has been shown to be important from the perspective of studies involving the Life Cycle Management of products. In this sense, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) stands out, which deals with a holistic technique for evaluating the environmental performance of products and services from a product life cycle perspective. Thus, there have been several applications of LCA for the evaluation of bioproducts, however, the literature on biomass pellets is scarce. Pellets are solid biofuels produced from mainly agricultural and wood residues, which have a huge potential market in Brazil and the world, and it can also contribute to the mitigation of impacts from greenhouse gases emissions. Thus, the overall objective of this project will be to research and develop inventories of the production of biomass pellets in Brazil and the adaptation of these inventories against the quality criteria set forth in the guide Qualidata of SICV Brazil. The SICV Brazil is the national database developed to promote studies of LCA in the country. In order to obtain the research objective, the following activities will be carried out: 1) developing partnerships with pellet manufacturers in Brazil; 2) model the pellets life cycle and generate inventories of pellets production in the country; 3) adapt the inventories against the Qualidata requirements to be eligible for publication in the SICV Brazil; and 4) to perform scenarios analysis via comparative LCA to analyze environmental hotspots and to suggest opportunities for environmental improvement for the life cycle of the pellets produced in Brazil. For the development of these inventories, case studies will be carried out in different national pellets industries. The inventories generated will serve as an unprecedented result, since the SICV Brazil lacks inventories on pellets. Therefore, the results of the study may point to actions and perspectives that may contribute to the strengthening of the SICV Brazil database, and consequently, to the strengthening of LCA and Bioeconomy in the country. (AU)

Scientific publications

(4)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

RAMPASSO, IZABELA SIMON; QUELHAS, OSVALDO L. G.; ANHOLON, ROSLEY; SILVA, DIOGO A. L.; PONTES, ANDRE TEIXEIRA; MIRANDA, JOCIMAR D. A.; DIAS, JANICE O.. The Bioeconomy in emerging economies: a study of the critical success factors based on Life Cycle Assessment and Delphi and Fuzzy-Delphi methods. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT, v. 26, n. 6, p. 1254-1266, JUN 2021. (19/16996-4)

DE SOUZA, LURI SHIROSAKI MARCAL; NUNES, ANDREA OLIVEIRA; GIUSTI, GABRIELA; SAAVEDRA, YOVANA M. B.; RODRIGUES, THIAGO OLIVEIRA; BRAGA, TIAGO E. NUNES; SILVA, DIOGO A. LOPES. Evaluating and ranking secondary data sources to be used in the Brazilian LCA database - "SICV Brasil". SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION, v. 26, p. 12-pg., 2021-04-01. (19/16996-4)

SILVA, VITOR UEMURA; NASCIMENTO, MARIA FATIMA; OLIVEIRA, PABLO RESENDE; PANZERA, TULIO HALLAK; REZENDE, MARILIA OLIVEIRA; LOPES SILVA, DIOGO APARECIDO; DE MOURA AQUINO, VINICIUS BORGES; ROCCO LAHR, FRANCISCO ANTONIO; CHRISTOFORO, ANDRE LUIS. Circular vs. linear economy of building materials: A case study for particleboards made of recycled wood and biopolymer vs. conventional particleboards. CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS, v. 285, MAY 24 2021. (19/16996-4)

SILVA, D. A. L.; FILLETI, R. A. P.; MUSULE, R.; MATHEUS, T. T.; FREIRE, F.. A systematic review and life cycle assessment of biomass pellets and briquettes production in Latin America. RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS, v. 157, p. 17-pg., 2022-01-19. (19/16996-4)