O potencial de biorrefino de resíduos de colheita no Estado de São Paulo: abordando aspectos técnicos e ambientais

Author(s)

Guilherme Pessoa Nogueira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos
• Defense date: 2022-08-17

Examining board members

Carla Kazue Nakao Cavaliero; Marcelle McManus; Otavio Cavalett; Tassia Lopes Junqueira

• Advisor: Carla Kazue Nakao Cavaliero; Marina Oliveira de Souza Dias

Abstract

Climate action is urgent, and large-scale bioenergy deployment will be crucial to limit global temperature rise in the short and medium terms. Bioenergy and, especially, biofuels can be important substitutes to fossil solutions, representing a renewable source of energy and carbon, that can be optimally explored under the biorefinery concept, through biomass conversion. Even though the land-use aspect of food vs. fuels is often discussed, when regarding energy crops, residual lignocellulosic biomass can still be explored, free from this questioning, and potentially provide important benefits in life-cycle carbon intensity and other environmental benefits. This thesis, thus, explored the biorefining potential of eucalyptus and sugarcane harvest residues for bioenergy generation in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. A range of potential biorefinery design routes were explored for both biomasses, for ethanol and electricity generation, encompassing process simulation and life cycle impact assessment. Incremental improvements were suggested along the way, like energy integration opportunities, biogas generation from aqueous streams, and on-site enzyme production, that either improved the overall mass and energy balance within the biorefinery or the overall life-cycle environmental burden of the studied value-chains. Finally, through a spatial assessment within São Paulo, both biomasses could be explored in complementarity, and together achieve important targets for gasoline and thermoelectricity substitution and greenhouse gases mitigation targets for both the RenovaBio program and to the Brazilian reduction targets from the Paris Agreement (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/20173-0 - Technical and environmental assessment of sugarcane straw and eucalyptus forest residues as feedstocks for biorefineries at São Paulo State
• Grantee: Guilherme Pessoa Nogueira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)