Title:
Use of National Data for Energy and GHG Emissions Balance for Sugarcane Ethanol Produced In Brazil
Author(s):
da Silva, C., Ko, L., Seabra, J.E.A.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Because of the lack of a Brazilian database, international life cycle inventories for chemicals and fuels have been used in the evaluation of ethanol life cycle emissions. Furthermore, the benefits of ethanol have also been estimated through comparisons against international parameters for gasoline. Since the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and energy consumption associated to the use of diesel and fertilizers represent a significant portion of the total emissions in the production chain of the sugarcane ethanol, the objective of this work was to present the energy and GHG emissions balance for the ethanol produced in Brazil by using country specific data regarding the production of fossil fuels and fertilizers. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies focused on the energy use and GHG emissions were performed for all the systems considered: ethanol, fossil fuels and fertilizers. The Brazilian information used to assemble the fossil fuels’ and fertilizers’ life cycle inventories were collected through comprehensive literature review and specialists consultation. The results indicate that the life cycle GHG emissions for fertilizers and fuels for the Brazilian conditions differ from the international values, but not significantly. Consequently, when Brazilian coefficients are used, the ethanol life cycle emissions and energy use are practically not altered.
Keywords:
energy balance, ethanol, greenhouse gases (GHG)
Topic:
Biomass Policies, Markets and Sustainability
Subtopic:
Sustainability assessment and criteria
Event:
19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
VP5.2.28
Pages:
2633 - 2640
ISBN-13:
978-88-89407-55-4
ISBN-10:
88-89407-55-7
Paper DOI:
10.5071/19thEUBCE2011-VP5.2.28
Price:
FREE
