Integrated food, energy and environmental services production

as an alternative for small rural properties in Brazil

Feni Agostinho and Enrique OrtegaState University of Campinas, Brazil

feniagostinho@gmail.com

7th Biennial International WorkshopAdvances in Energy Studies 2010Can we break the addiction to fossil energy?Barcelona, October 19-21, 2010

Workshop section 2-3:Integrating energy systems with natural process

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

(i) Embodied Energy Analysis(ii) Material Flow Accounting(iii) Emergy Accounting(iv) Indirect Gas Emission Inventory

(iv) Direct Gas Emission Inventory

“Downstream”Local environmental impacts:

“Upstream”Global environmental impacts:

System #1IFEESRaw data from field workTotal area of 35 haSugarcane area of 2 ha

System #2Large-scale ethanol productionRaw data from literature (average of 42 ethanol plants)Total area of 38,750 haSugarcane area of 31,000 ha

Current large-scale ethanol production in Brazil

Sugarcane plantation areas

Ethanol plant

Manual harvesting Mechanical harvesting

VinasseSugarcane bagasse

Sugarcane field

Sugarcane landscape

Emissions

Emissions

and emissions

and emissions

Large-scale ethanol production: systemic diagram

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

Integrated Food, Energy and Environmental Services (IFEES) production: small-scale agricultural unit that uses local renewable resources to produce several output supplying regional demand

Small-scale ethanol production in Brazil: an option

Pasture and Forest Sugarcane and Eucalyptus Micro-ethanol plant Vinasse for cattle

Sugarcane bagasse Cattle (milk and meat) Orchard Vegetables

IFEES: systemic diagram

Fauna

Flora

Baga-sse

People

Soil

Water

Steer (calf)

ServicesFertilizers Herbicides Pesticides

Plastic & rubber

Concrete & bricks

Seeds & seedlingsSteelElectricityDiesel

Natural capital

Wood

Forestry

Sugar-cane

Sugarcane

Bio-mass

Pasture

Food

Horticulture, annual culture, orchard and coffee

Infra-structure

Ethanol plant

Manure

Sun

Ethanol

Emissions

Organic manure

Environmental services

Meat and milk (and negative externalities)

Vinasse

$

Food (and negative externalities)

Wind

Rain

Integrated food, energy and environmental services production in Sao Paulo State, Brazil

AB

Cattle

AB = Animal biomass

Urea and vaccines

Labor

Compost

by F

eni A

gost

inho

Wood and trees for landscaping

Local labor

Food and compost

Brown sugar and ethanol

Results Results: outputs performance

25 times larger

zero

zero

zero

zero

Lower load on environment

(0.84)

Results: overall system performanceHigh

sustainability (54%)

Similar performance for

EYR and EIR

Better cost/benefit relationship

Results: ethanol production performance

12 times larger

Notice: This number is misleading because IFEES produce more

than only ethanol

Except for Hydrocarbons, IFEES releases

lesser gas amount than

large-scale

Better eNergy efficiency

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 Unit/yr Large-scale Scenario “if” IFEES

Ethanol billion L 33.03 1.32

Electricity G Wh 25 -

Grains million ton - 2.08

Vegetables million ton - 5.63

Fruits million ton - 17.00

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

Water percolated trillion L 4.62 7.92

CO2 absorbed million ton 37.27 63.88

Labor billion hours 0.48 1.66

26 million ton

To reach 33 billion liters of ethanol per year, it will be necessary 112 million hectares taken by IFEES. This area is 4.5 times larger than Sao Paulo State!

Output Unit/yr Large-scale IFEES

Ethanol billion L 33.03 1.32

Electricity G Wh 25 -

Crops million ton - 2.08

Vegetables million ton - 5.63

Fruits million ton - 17.00

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

Water percolated trillion L 4.62 7.92

CO2 absorbed million ton 37.27 63.88

Labor billion hours 0.48 1.66

Should we continue to use the current unsustainable

development model of intense energy dependence, or…

… should we adopt a new sustainable development model of lesser energy dependence, in which energy,

food and environmental services have the same importance ?

A combination of the two?

Source: Folke GüntherSource: Folke Günther Source: Folke Günther

Ruralization

Support Alfa Projecthttp://www.e-science.unicamp.br/support/

State University of Campinashttp://www.unicamp.br/

Research Support Foundation in Sao Paulo Statehttp://www.fapesp.br/

Acknowledgements