EUBCE 2024 - Danilo PERECIN - CCS in BIoethanol Plants: An Assessment under Brazil’s Biofuels Policy (RenovaBio)

CCS in BIoethanol Plants: An Assessment under Brazil’s Biofuels Policy (RenovaBio)

Short Introductive summary

BECCS deployment is likely to prioritise industries in operation with competitive and already low-carbon products. This is the case of ethanol in Brazil, with an annual production of 30 billion liters covering 40% of light vehicles energy demand. In this context, the objective of this paper is to assess the impacts of CCS adoption on sugarcane ethanol plants in Brazil considering the National Biofuels Policy – RenovaBio lifecycle emissions accounting principles. We find the adoption of CCS exclusively applied to high-purity CO2 of fermentation units in sugarcane ethanol plants is currently not sufficient to reach a negative ethanol carbon intensity. The carbon capture potential of bagasse CHP is the highest among the identified point sources, but the high costs of post-combustion capture are likely to discourage adoption. Biogas upgrading, while providing an additional stream of relatively high CO2 concentration, is the smallest in volume. In conclusion, CCS is key to reaching negative emissions, but efforts targeting efficiency and the adoption of other technologies would converge to maximising the climate contribution from sugarcane ethanol.

D. Perecin, Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Innovation, University of São Paulo, BRAZIL
M. M. dos Santos, Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Innovation, University of São Paulo, BRAZIL
W.J. Kimura, University of São Paulo, BRAZIL
B. Narvaez-Romo, Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Innovation, University of São Paulo, BRAZIL
S. T. Coelho, Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Innovation, University of São Paulo, BRAZIL