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Pathway to a land-neutral expansion of Brazilian renewable fuel production.

ABSTRACT: Biofuels are currently the only available bulk renewable fuel. They have, however, limited expansion potential due to high land requirements and associated risks for biodiversity, food security, and land conflicts. We therefore propose to increase output from ethanol refineries in a land-neutral methanol pathway: surplus CO₂-streams from fermentation are combined with H₂ from renewably powered electrolysis to synthesize methanol. We illustrate this pathway with the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol industry using a spatio-temporal model. The fuel output of existing ethanol generation facilities can be increased by 43%-49% or ~100 TWh without using additional land. This amount is sufficient to cover projected growth in Brazilian biofuel demand in 2030. We identify a trade-off between renewable energy generation technologies: wind power requires the least amount of land whereas a mix of wind and solar costs the least. In the cheapest scenario, green methanol is competitive to fossil methanol at an average carbon price of 95€ tCO₂^-1.

SUBMITTER: Ramirez Camargo L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9174478 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pathway to a land-neutral expansion of Brazilian renewable fuel production.

Ramirez Camargo Luis L Castro Gabriel G Gruber Katharina K Jewell Jessica J Klingler Michael M Turkovska Olga O Wetterlund Elisabeth E Schmidt Johannes J

Nature communications 20220607 1

Biofuels are currently the only available bulk renewable fuel. They have, however, limited expansion potential due to high land requirements and associated risks for biodiversity, food security, and land conflicts. We therefore propose to increase output from ethanol refineries in a land-neutral methanol pathway: surplus CO<sub>2</sub>-streams from fermentation are combined with H<sub>2</sub> from renewably powered electrolysis to synthesize methanol. We illustrate this pathway with the Brazilia ...[more]

PMID: 35672306

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Pathway to a land-neutral expansion of Brazilian renewable fuel production.

Publications

Pathway to a land-neutral expansion of Brazilian renewable fuel production.

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