7th Biennial International Workshop
Advances in Energy Studies 2010
Can we break the addiction to fossil energy?
Barcelona, October 19-21, 2010
Workshop section 2-3:
Integrating energy systems with natural process
Integrated food, energy and
environmental services production
as an alternative for
small rural properties in Brazil
Feni Agostinho and Enrique Ortega
State University of Campinas, Brazil
feniagostinho@gmail.com
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 #1
IFEES
Raw data from field work
Total area of 35 ha
Sugarcane area of 2 ha
System #2
Large-scale ethanol production
Raw data from literature (average of 42 ethanol plants)
Total area of 38,750 ha
Sugarcane area of 31,000 ha
“Upstream”
Global environmental impacts:
(i) Embodied Energy Analysis
(ii) Material Flow Accounting
(iii) Emergy Accounting
(iv) Indirect Gas Emission Inventory
“Downstream”
Local environmental impacts:
System
(iv) Direct Gas Emission Inventory
Current large-scale ethanol production in Brazil
Ethanol plant
Sugarcane field
Manual harvesting
Mechanical harvesting
Sugarcane bagasse
Vinasse
Sugarcane plantation areas
Sugarcane landscape
Large-scale ethanol production: systemic diagram
Emissions
and emissions
and emissions
Emissions
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
Small-scale ethanol production in Brazil: an option
 Integrated Food, Energy and Environmental Services (IFEES) production: smallscale agricultural unit that uses local renewable resources to produce several
output supplying regional demand
Pasture and Forest
Sugarcane and Eucalyptus
Micro-ethanol plant
Vinasse for
cattle
Sugarcane bagasse
Cattle (milk and meat)
Orchard
Vegetables
IFEES: systemic diagram
Diesel
Electricity
Steel
Seeds &
seedlings
Concrete
& bricks
Plastic &
rubber
Fertilizers
Herbicides
Pesticides
Services
Labor
Fauna
Flora
Steer
(calf)
Soil
Natural
capital
Water
$
Local
labor
Rain
Environmental
services
Wood
Wind
Infrastructure
People
Food and
compost
Wood and
trees for
landscaping
Forestry
Sun
Sugarcane
Brown sugar
and ethanol
Ethanol
Ethanol plant
by Feni Agostinho
Sugarcane
Urea and
vaccines
Biomass
Emissions
Vinasse
AB
Pasture
Bagasse
Organic
manure
Manure
Food
Cattle
AB = Animal biomass
Integrated food, energy and
environmental services production in
Sao Paulo State, Brazil
Horticulture, annual
culture, orchard and coffee
Compost
Meat and milk
(and negative
externalities)
Food
(and negative
externalities)
Results: outputs performance
Results
25
times
larger
zero
zero
zero
zero
Results: overall system performance
Similar
performance for
EYR and EIR
Better
cost/benefit
relationship
Lower load on
environment
(0.84)
High
sustainability
(54%)
Results: ethanol production performance
Better eNergy
efficiency
Notice: This number
is misleading because
IFEES produce more
than only ethanol
Except for
Hydrocarbons,
IFEES releases
lesser gas
amount than
large-scale
12
times
larger
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
Ethanol
Unit/yr
Large-scale
Scenario “if”
IFEES
billion L
33.03
1.32
G Wh
25
-
Grains
million ton
-
2.08
Vegetables
million ton
-
5.63
To
reach 33 billion liters million
of ethanol
Fruits
ton
per year, it will be necessary 112
Coffee
million ton
million hectares taken by IFEES.
Meatarea is 4.5 times larger
million
ton
This
than
MilkPaulo State!
million ton
Sao
-
17.00
-
0.85
-
0.27
-
0.46
Wood forestry
million ton
-
3.52
Compost
million ton
-
26.77
trillion L
4.62
7.92
million ton
37.27
63.88
billion hours
0.48
1.66
Electricity
Water percolated
CO2 absorbed
Labor
26
million ton
Should we continue to use the
current unsustainable
development model of intense
energy dependence, or…
Output
Ethanol
… should we adopt a new sustainable development
model of lesser energy dependence, in which energy,
food and environmental services have the same
importance ?
Unit/yr
Large-scale
IFEES
billion L
33.03
1.32
G Wh
25
-
Crops
million ton
-
2.08
Vegetables
million ton
-
5.63
Fruits
million ton
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
trillion L
4.62
7.92
million ton
37.27
63.88
billion hours
0.48
1.66
Electricity
Water percolated
CO2 absorbed
Labor
A combination of
the two? -
17.00
Ruralization
Source: Folke Günther
Source:Source:
Folke Günther
Folke Günther
Acknowledgements
State University of Campinas
http://www.unicamp.br/
Research Support Foundation in Sao Paulo State
http://www.fapesp.br/
Support Alfa Project
http://www.e-science.unicamp.br/support/