Brazil bioethanol production

The most commonly produced biofuel is bioe taiiol, which is ethanol (C2H5OH) made from fermentation of plant carbohydrates. The fuel value of ethanol is about two-thirds that of gasoline and is therefore comparable to that of coal (Table 5.5). The United States and Brazil dominate bioethanol production, together supplying 85% of the world s total. 

A different approach is provided by the utilization of carbon sources that have a considerable market value and do not constitute waste materials, but are produced in a process integrating the fabrication of the carbon substrate and PHA. This has been implemented on a pilot scale by the company PHB Industrial in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Starting from sugar cane, the company produces saccharose and ethanol. The waste streams from the sugar production (bagasse) and the bioethanol production (fusel alcohols) are used for running the PHA production and making it economically competitive. 

Worldwide, ethanol is mostly produced by fermentation, accoimt-ing for up to 90% of ethanol produced globally. In Brazil, most bioethanol is produced from sugarcane or molasses and in the United States from com. However, other starch materials such as wheat, barley and rye are also suitable as raw material. The starch-containing grains have to be converted into sugar. Thus, in Europe, starch grains, e.g., wheat and sugar beet are the major source of bioethanol production (15). 

In the last decade, production of biofuels has gained momentum and grown into a large industry, often heavily subsidised. From 2007 to 2011 worldwide production of all biofuels rose from over 175,000 to over 3(X),000 m Vday. In bioethanol production, the USA and Brazil are leading the way, with more than 144,000 and 62,000 m /day, respectively, being produced in 2011. Biodiesel is produced most intensively in Europe with over 28,000 m /day being made in 2011 (U.S.E.I. Administration 2012). 

Many countries import raw soybean (oilseeds) and then process it to soybean oil. In 2013-14, the United States was the largest producer of soybeans (91,389,000 metric tons), followed by Brazil (86,700,000 metric tons) and Argentina (54,000,000 metric tons). In 2007, e farmers in the United States converted their land area to corn (for bioethanol production), which is more profitable than soybean. This caused a serious decline of soybean production. Within one year, soybean production in the United States reached the level of previous years. The Unites States (40%) and Brazil (40%) are the major exporters of soybean. About 60% of the world soybean exports go to Asia, with China being the main importer (63.8%). The main soybean oil producers are China followed by the United States, Argentina, and Brazil (Fig. 19.2). The largest exporters are Argentina (44.3%), Brazil (15%), and the United States (9.2%), which altogether accounted for almost 69% of the total oil traded in 2013-14. India and China are the major importers of soybean oil. 

Sugarcane is the only raw material employed for bioethanol production in Brazil, accounting for 322.2 million metric tons of this raw material destined to the production of 29 billion liters of ethanol in 2015, 77.2% of the total installed capacity (Barros, 2015). 

Both in the USA and the EU, the introduction of renewable fuels standards is likely to increase considerably the consumption of bioethanol. Lignocelluloses from agricultural and forest industry residues and/or the carbohydrate fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) will be the future source of biomass, but starch-rich sources such as corn grain (the major raw material for ethanol in USA) and sugar cane (in Brazil) are currently used. Although land devoted to fuel could reduce land available for food production, this is at present not a serious problem, but could become progressively more important with increasing use of bioethanol. For this reason, it is important to utilize other crops that could be cultivated in unused land (an important social factor to preserve rural populations) and, especially, start to use cellulose-based feedstocks and waste materials as raw material. 

Bioethanol produced from pretreatment and microbial fermentation of biomass has great potential to become a sustainable transportation fuel in the near future [1]. Brazil and the United States are the largest producers of ethanol for transport, accounting for about 90% of world production. Both coimtries currently produce about 16 billion liters per year with a displacement of 40% of gasoline use in Brazil but only 3% in the United States with... 

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