Studies want to create a future sustainable aviation fuel made from biomass and sugarcane ethanol
Researchers from USP (University of São Paulo) want to estimate the potential that the sugar and alcohol sector presents for hydrogen production in the country. To do this, they will analyze data from all ethanol plants in Brazil – there are 358 sugarcane plants and 21 corn plants, according to numbers updated in December 2022 – and calculate the amount of hydrogen they could produce for a future fuel. sustainable for aviation.
The idea is to extract hydrogen from the biomass left over from production and from sugarcane ethanol itself.
The work involves scientists from the Bioenergy Research Group at IEE-USP (Institute of Energy and Environment) and RCGI (Research Center for Innovation in Greenhouse Gases), an engineering research center made up of Fapesp It is Shell at the Polytechnic School.
“Hydrogen has increasingly appeared as an important energy vector for the decarbonization of different sectors, including aviation. The most publicized currently is hydrogen produced from the electrolysis of water using solar or wind energy, but there are also routes developed from biomass, which are quite competitive”says chemical engineer Suani Teixeira Coelho, professor at the Postgraduate Program in Energy at USP and coordinator of the project, alongside Marcos Buckeridge, professor at the Biosciences Institute at USP and coordinator of the INCT (National Institute of Science and Technology) of Bioethanol.
Among the various possible uses of hydrogen are the production of fertilizers, fuel for buses and cars and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), explains the professor.
A study led by the non-governmental organization RSB (Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials), based in Switzerland, in collaboration with the Brazilian NGO Agroiconereports that, of the global production of 390 billion liters of aviation kerosene, only 14 million liters are SAF.
Replacing fossil fuels with others produced sustainably and with a low carbon content would be the most efficient way to achieve the industry’s objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050.
“We are going to analyze the plants we have in Brazil – how much they produce sugar cane, ethanol and the potential that can be produced for biogas from the by-products of the process. From this data, we will estimate the amount of hydrogen we could produce from different routes: reforming [quebrando as moléculas] ethanol and biogas, in addition to water electrolysis using local surplus electricity”says Coelho.
“We are starting now and this first stage should last approximately one year. If we get additional funding, we will map other sources of biomass as well”it says.
The study is supported by the USPSusten program and the INCT do Bioetanol, whose research is primarily financed by Fapesp and the Cnpq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development).
Different scenarios
The study will work with different scenarios, covering the demand for ethanol by road transport and including 2nd generation (2G) ethanol in the analysis, considered even more sustainable than 1st generation as it is produced from sugarcane bagasse.
“Whenever you use biomass residue, such as sugarcane bagasse, to generate energy, you have a more sustainable system,” says Suani Coelho. “Firstly, because this waste is appropriately disposed of. And, second, because there is no need to expand the planting area. It is a concept that fits into what we call circular bioeconomy”it says.
For now, in the country, there is only 1 2G ethanol plant, located at Bioparque Costa Pinto, in Piracicaba, in the interior of São Paulo, owned by the energy company Raízen.
Another 2 plants in São Paulo produce biogas from vinasse and filter cake, waste from the sugarcane agro-industrial operation. “Today these 2 projects – from the Bonfim and Cocal plants – use biogas to produce electrical energy in an electric motor or to transform it into biomethane and use it as fuel for cars and buses. But we can also reform biogas to produce hydrogen”says the project coordinator.
For the study, researchers will use a database created during another RCGI project, which analyzed the potential for carbon capture in plants, and information available in the publication NovaCana.
The technology for transforming hydrogen into aviation fuel exists, for now, only at laboratory level and researchers are closely monitoring advances, as they consider the prospect of using hydrogen directly or as a precursor to other sustainable aviation fuels to be significant.
“We have already carried out other mappings, of biogas, biomethane and electricity potential, but this one of hydrogen production, in a broad way and for all plants in the country, is the first”says Coelho.
With information from Fapesp Agency
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