Brazil, ethanol production from sugarcane

Figure 1.3 Expansion of Brazil ethanol production and corresponding use of sugarcane (figure from OECD-FAO).

Unlike ethanol production from corn, ethanol manufactured from sugarcane may be relatively cost-effective as an ethylene feedstock. Dow Chemical announced a sugarcane-to-polyethylene project in Brazil in 2007 that will play a role in evaluating the process economics in the manufacture of polyethylene from a biomass material. 

There is a need for continued increases in yields not only to feed a growing world population, but also for greater fuel production (OECD-FAO, 2007). For example, US ethanol production, predominately based on corn, is expected to double between 2006 and 2016 (Figure 1.1). By 2016, ethanol is expected to represent a full one-third of corn production. Corn used for fuel in China is expected to increase from 3.5 million tons in 2006 to 9 million tons in 2016 (Figure 1.2). Ethanol production in Brazil is predominately based on sugarcane and is expected to increase by 145% between 2006 and 2016 (Figure 1.3). 

Because of high oil prices, Brazil (most of whose sugars are produced from sugarcane) took the dramatic step of shifting to a much greater use of fuel alcohol. One wood hydrolysis plant was constructed, but it was uneconomical to operate and was shut down. However, Brazilian experience has demonstrated that fermentation ethanol (95 percent ethanol and 5 percent water) is a perfectly satisfactory motor fuel. At least 500,000 Brazilian automobiles operate on undried alcohol continuously, and most of the rest of their fleet operates on this fuel on weekends when only alcohol is available at the gas stations.36 A number of methods can be used for the production of ethanol from wood, as described below. 

In Brazil almost 90% of the new cars run on this mixture while the rest operate on a 20% ethanol/80% gasoline mix. The country produces the ethanol on about 1% of its total farmable land. This is because sugarcane can be grown almost year-round in Brazil. The program required government assistance and by 1988 government subsidies for the production of ethanol from sugarcane were almost 1.3 billion. 

Solvay has announced the production of a 60.000 mt/a PVC plant in Brazil which will produce ethylene from sugarcane ethanol [14]. Genencor and Goodyear presented their concept for the manufacture of tires from synthetic rubber based on renewable biomass during the Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009 [15]. 

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). 

Moraes MAFD, ZUberman D. Production of ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil, 195. Natural resource management and policy, vol. 43. Springer 2014. ht //dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03140-8 15. 

Gasohol boosts octane rating and reduces emissions of carbon monoxide. From a resource viewpoint, because of its photosynthetic origin, alcohol may be considered a renewable resource rather than a depletable fossil fuel. Ethanol is most commonly produced biochemically by fermentation of carbohydrates. Brazil, a country that produces copious amounts of fermentable sugar from sugarcane, has been a leader in the manufacture of ethanol for fuel uses, with an annual production rate of about 24 billion liters. However, due to sugarcane crop shortfalls in 2009-2010, Brazil actually had to import some ethanol from the United States in early 2011 to make up for a deficiency in this fuel. 

Proposals to implement a biorefinery approach for platform chemical production have ignited a debate on whether biorefinery feedstock production threatens food security and increases the rate of deforestation (Ravindranath et al., 2008). It s worrying because the feedstock suitable for biorefinery implementation is procured primarily from forests. Any activity such as feedstock production, which puts considerable pressure on the forest cover, endangers natural heritage and biodiversity (Achten et al., 2013). This chapter discusses various forest-based feedstocks for biorefinery. Moreover, it seeks to elaborate the industrial applications of this feedstock, their characteristics and land requirements (essentially the extent of theoretical deforestation), their production, and procurement. Clearly the influence of biorefinery on woodlands will rely on the nature of the feedstock being used. For example, Brazil utilizes deforested land for sugarcane cultivation and subsequent ethanol production. However, in the case of Indonesia, rain forests were cleared for palm oil production. All of the biorefinery processes require cellulose as the raw material, and since the major source of cellulose in nature is in the form of trees, large-scale deforestation seems to be a plausible end scenario (Gao et al., 2011). 

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