Indicators for sustainable energy development: Brazil's case study

This article summarizes the results of the project on indicators for sustainable energy development (ISED) in Brazil. The project's aim was to present energy related economic, social and environmental data to policy makers in a coherent and consistent form, showing interlinkages, time‐series and cross‐sectoral analyses and assess energy policy. Two priority areas assessed by these indicators, regarding the country's energy supply and demand, helped in the identification of a number of energy policy options that focused on specific aspects of the country's energy sector. On the supply side, these options include the development and stimulation of renewable energy, such as small‐scale hydroelectric, wind, solar photovoltaic power and bagasse cogeneration; stimulation of programmes for ethanol use as automotive fuel and sugarcane bagasse cogeneration; and implementation of natural gas‐fired, combined heat and power (CHP) plants. On the demand side, policy options include: the full implementation of the law on efficiency standards for appliances; expansion of utility investment in end‐use energy efficiency; adoption of targets and protocols to reduce energy intensity in the industrial sector; improvement of passenger transport efficiency; and the creation of a fund to improve energy affordability for the poor.     

Effective application of ethanol in diesel engines

This work aimed to prove the effects of adding different proportions of ethanol with diesel (DE) and ethanol–water mixture with diesel (DEW) in a single-cylinder diesel engine on the performance, emissions, and combustion parameters. The blends were stabilized by tetra methyl ammonium bromide (TMAB) as the additive. The study was conducted at two operating conditions initially on a normal diesel engine and in the second case the engine piston, valves, and cylinder head coated with zirconia (ZrO₂) alumina (Al₂O₃). The results showed that the addition of 10% ethanol with diesel performed almost equivalent to neat diesel with 29.2% BTE and a 17.7% decrease in smoke and an 11.4% increase in NOx emission at peak load compared to that of the base fuel. Modified engines with thermal barrier coating (TBC) performed superior to normal engines with 4% and 5.5% increase in BTE, respectively, for DE- and DEW-type fuels with reduced exhaust emissions. A 5% addition of water with diesel–ethanol blends favors a higher proportion of ethanol to be employed in diesel engines.     

The behaviour of suppliers and consumers in mandated markets: the introduction of the ethanol–petrol blend E10 in Germany

In December 2010, the German government increased the maximum ethanol content that can be blended with petrol from 5% to 10%, which facilitated the introduction of the ethanol–petrol blend E10. The revised ethanol–petrol blend was introduced with ambitions towards decarbonizing the transport sector as well as to support energy security and rural development. While usually supportive of actions aimed to combat climate change, the great majority of German motorists have refused to buy E10. The lacking demand for E10 is the empirical phenomenon addressed by this study. How did the fuel suppliers comply with the policy provisions? Which actors made attempts to influence the motorists’ demand for the new ethanol–petrol blend? Which actor was assigned the responsibility for the problems that occurred upon the rollout of the new fuel type? These research questions guide this study, which concentrates on the behaviour of transport fuel suppliers and consumers in mandated markets, that is, markets created by policy provisions.     

Biorefinery study of availability of agriculture residues and wastes for integrated biorefineries in Brazil

Brazil has a great potential for use renewable raw materials in biorefineries. It is one of the largest producers of agricultural and animal commodities, which produce large amounts of residues and wastes. These agricultural residues and animal waste can be effectively transformed to energy and other products in systems similar to a ethanol refinery where an integrated process involves conversion for biomass into fuel, energy and chemicals, integrated in the context of a biorefinery. The objective of this work is the determination of the actual availability of main agricultural residues and animal wastes generated in Brazil and of their generation potential index and their prospects for 2020. The results indicate that the sugarcane has the highest agronomic availability, reaching 157 million tons of fresh material and an estimated reuse potential of 19.6 million tons (dry basis), followed by soybeans, rice, maize, orange, wheat, cotton, cassava and tobacco.     

Cement replacement by sugar cane bagasse ash: CO2 emissions reduction and potential for carbon credits

This paper presents a study of cement replacement by sugar cane bagasse ash (SCBA) in industrial scale aiming to reduce the CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere. SCBA is a by-product of the sugar/ethanol agro-industry abundantly available in some regions of the world and has cementitious properties indicating that it can be used together with cement. Recent comprehensive research developed at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro/Brazil has demonstrated that SCBA maintains, or even improves, the mechanical and durability properties of cement-based materials such as mortars and concretes. Brazil is the world’s largest sugar cane producer and being a developing country can claim carbon credits. A simulation was carried out to estimate the potential of CO₂ emission reductions and the viability to issue certified emission reduction (CER) credits. The simulation was developed within the framework of the methodology established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The State of São Paulo (Brazil) was chosen for this case study because it concentrates about 60% of the national sugar cane and ash production together with an important concentration of cement factories. Since one of the key variables to estimate the CO₂ emissions is the average distance between sugar cane/ethanol factories and the cement plants, a genetic algorithm was developed to solve this optimization problem. The results indicated that SCBA blended cement reduces CO₂ emissions, which qualifies this product for CDM projects.     

Structural challenges that contributed to the decline of the communities for climate protection programme

In 2004 New Zealand's (NZ) Labour-led government launched the Communities for Climate Protection – NZ (CCP-NZ) programme. Following a shift in Government leadership in 2008, from Clark's Labour-led to Key's National-led government, the CCP-NZ programme was discontinued. Through the narratives of managers charged with the implementation and delivery of the CCP-NZ programme, this paper explores the structural challenges that contributed to the initiative's decline in NZ local government. This research contributes to the academic literature by shedding light on the outworking of a local government carbon management strategy. Additionally, this study provides policy makers and managers seeking to embark on organisational carbon mitigation the opportunity to glean insight from the experience of public sector managers responsible for the CCP-NZ programme.     

Auto-adaptive Air Distribution and Structure Optimization of Ejector Burner for Biomass Alcohol Fuels

A plenty of studies on the utilization of biomass alcohol fuels have been conducted, but combustion efficiency and stability of this fuels still need to be improved. Based on biomass alcohol fuels (bio-methanol and bio-ethanol), this paper studied auto-adaptive air distribution characteristics and optimum structure parameters of an ejector burner by numerical simulation method. Also, an experiment was conducted to verify the numerical results. The results show that the mole air entrainment ratio (MAER) keeps almost constant when the ejector fuel nozzle exit locates at the segment between the ejector throat and the suction chamber entrance, but a bigger ratio α would lead to a higher MAER till the α is bigger than 8.5 for bio-methanol and 11.5 for bio-ethanol. The bio-ethanol fuel is more beneficial for air carrying role because of its big molecular weight. Operation pressure (P_w) has a little impact on MAER of the two fuels, but the rise of back pressure (P_b) would lead to rapid decrease of MAER for the two fuels. For the optimum structure burners, the MAER can be maintained at the value of theoretical complete combustion. Its changing rate is less than 2.3% for bio-methanol and 2.5% for bio-ethanol when the burner load changes from 30% to 120%, which is highly consistent with the experimental results. The optimum burner can distribute air supply automatically with the changing of burner load.     

Combustion,emission, and phase stability features of a diesel engine fueled by Jatropha/ethanol blends and n-butanol as co-solvent

ABSTRACT

The main challenge of utilizing ethanol in diesel engines in blending mode is the phase separation issue. Therefore, an attempt has been performed to enhance the stability feature of ethanol/Jatropha biodiesel (JME) blends by using n-butanol as co-solvent. The 10% by volume of n-butanol is added to the mixtures of 10% and 20% ethanol and 70% and 80% JME, which is denoted as JME10Bu10E and JME10Bu20E, respectively. The phase stability of the evaluated fuels is examined employing visual approach and Thermogravimetric analysis. These methods confirm that there is no phase separation for more than 2 months under ambient conditions. Then, the combustion and emission features are investigated utilizing a diesel engine run with different loads and constant speed. The findings demonstrate that the p_max. and HRR are increased by adding ethanol. The ignition delay is extended with the addition of ethanol while the combustion period is almost the same. The bsfc is decreased by adding ethanol compared to JME fuel. The CO, UHC, and NO_x formations are reduced markedly by 40%, 40%, and 40%, respectively, with adding ethanol. Finally, using n-butanol and JME as co-solvents with ethanol supports the growth of renewable energy in the CI engine.     

E‐waste in the world today: An overview of problems and a proposal for improvement in Brazil

Environmental issues have been at the center of society's concerns for a long time. Recently, this kind of concern is growing even more due to the damage caused to the environment by electrical and electronic product waste. Based on this same concern, this work aimed to analyze, through a literature review, the production and treatment of electronic waste in today's world, with an emphasis on Brazil and China. The articles reviewed point to an increase in the production of this type of waste, in both Brazil and China, and reveal that the current processes of treatment of electronic waste mostly aim to obtain profit through the recovery of precious metals such as copper. This paper concluded that although Brazil is one of the major producers of e‐waste, more than 90% of its e‐waste has not had a proper final destination. This deficiency in e‐waste treatment in Brazil is mainly due to financial factors and the lack of a robust educational policy focused on the environment. Thus, this work suggests the implementation of an effective educational policy aimed at environmental conservation, as well as investments in research on recycling methods in Brazil, especially on the use of e‐waste as an aggregate in the manufacture of concrete.     

An effective approach to improve ethanol productivity by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of rice straw

Fuel ethanol was produced using rice straw with the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) method. The influence of cellulose liquefaction pretreatment and Fe²⁺ quantity on ethanol productivity was investigated in detail. At the same time, the optimized conditions including fermentation temperature, Fe²⁺ amount, yeast inoculation quantity, and the inoculated cellulose enzyme dosage in the SSF process were systematically investigated by analyzing fuel ethanol yield. The result indicated that fuel ethanol yield was 0.319 g per gram rice straw by SSF approach when appropriate amount of Fe²⁺ was added into the reaction system. The optimal technology parameters were: fermenting temperature of 36°C, Fe²⁺ amount of 4 mg · g^?1, inoculating proportion of 20%, cellulose enzyme of 20 IU · g^?1, and Pachysolen tannophilu/saecharomyces cerevisiae of 1:2 ratio. The ethanol yield under the best conditions was larger than that of the control group. We hope that this research can facilitate to achieve large-scale comprehensive utilization for rice straw.     

From Superfund Site to Developable Property: The Case of Rentokil

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (42 USC §§9601 et seq.), commonly known as Superfund, was enacted on 11 December 1980 to facilitate the clean-up of hazardous waste sites. Superfund authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to compel responsible parties to clean up such sites. Superfund has been the source of extensive criticism since its inception. In response to this criticism, the EPA undertook a series of administrative reforms in 1993 to make the Superfund programme faster, fairer and more efficient. As of September 2000, active site remediation was complete at 757 (43%) of the 1779 national priority list (NPL) sites and 218 sites (12%) had been deleted from the NPL. Rentokil, a former wood-preserving plant on a 10 acre (4 ha) site in Henrico County, Virginia, was brought to the Virginia Health Department's attention as a threat to human health and the environment in 1989, was listed on the NPL the same year and was fully cleaned up in 1999. The cost of cleaning up Rentokil was $12 million, or $37.08 per square foot ($412 per square metre). The site is proposed to be redeveloped for tax-generating light industrial and commercial use. Rentokil reflects the EPA's implementation of several reforms geared toward reconciling cost considerations with remedy effectiveness and expedient implementation, and facilitating redevelopment. This case study's examination of Rentokil's progression through the Superfund process is intended to provide planning practitioners and students with insight into the Superfund programme and process, as well as an awareness of the challenges confronting Superfund's success.     

The new gold rush: fueling ethanol production while protecting water quality

Renewable fuel production, particularly grain-based ethanol, is expanding rapidly in the USA. Although subsidized grain-based ethanol may provide a competitively priced transportation fuel, concerns exist about potential environmental impacts. This contribution focuses on potential water quality implications of expanded grain-based ethanol production and potential impacts of perennial-grass-based cellulosic ethanol. Expanded grain-based ethanol will increase and intensify corn production. Even with recommended fertilizer and land conservation measures, corn acreage can be a major source of N loss to water (20-40 kg ha(-1) yr(-1)). A greater acreage of corn is estimated to increase N and P loss to water by 37% (117 million kg) and 25% (9 million kg), respectively, and measures to encourage adoption of conservation practices are essential to mitigate water quality impairments. Dried distiller's grains remaining after ethanol production from corn grain are used as animal feed and can increase manure P content and may increase N content. Cellulosic fuel-stocks from perennials such as switchgrass and woody materials have the potential to produce ethanol. Although production, storage, and handling of cellulosic materials and conversion technology are limitations, accelerating development of cellulosic ethanol has the potential to reduce dependence on grain fuel-stocks and provide water quality and other environmental benefits. All alternative fuel production technologies could have environmental impacts. There is a need to understand these impacts to help guide policy and help make programmatic and scientific decisions that avoid or mitigate unintended environmental consequences of biofuel production.     

Economy wide impacts of ethanol and biodiesel policy in Canada: An input–output analysis

The Government of Canada has committed that Canada’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions be reduced by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020. The new Renewable Fuels Regulations required 2% renewable content in diesel fuel and heating distillate oil and 5% for gasoline. This represents approximately 2.1 billion liters of ethanol and 600 million liters of biodiesel requirement per year, which would reduce GHG emissions by more than four million tones. Canada is expected to consume more fuel ethanol compared to its production capacity. The above mandates as well as the gap in consumption and production of biofuel will have enormous impact on the Canadian economy. In this backdrop, an input–output model of the Canadian economy is developed to estimate the macroeconomic impact of the ethanol and biodiesel production in Canada. The impacts on sectoral prices have also been calculated. Simulation exercises have been attempted to reach the mandates using modified Leontief model. Results show that agriculture sector is affected because of feedstock use in the biofuel sector. Mining and manufacturing industries also show a considerable impact. In addition, the impact on commodity prices cannot be ignored. Finally, to meet the target of Copenhagen commitment, the nation needs to revise the blending capacity of ethanol and biodiesel.     

Modification of ecological footprint evaluation method to include non-renewable resource consumption using thermodynamic approach

This study is to modify the ecological footprint methodology by incorporating non-renewable or abiotic resources as an additional category. The use of abiotic resources can be quantified as global hectare by using thermodynamic approaches. A detailed case study on various countries including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Japan, USA, and Vietnam shows the advantage of using the new modified ecological footprint (EF) as an indicator for sustainable development. The modified EF includes not only biotic resources, but also the abiotic resources. The case study indicates that the modified EF differs from the traditional EF up to 123% in the case of Belgium, and 90% in the case of Australia. For developing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, the differences are relatively smaller (21% for Brazil and 9.4% for Vietnam). The estimated total ecological footprint of the world using the new method implies more serious problems associated with over consumption than using results from the original ecological footprint method.     

Modification of ecological footprint evaluation method to include non-renewable resource consumption using thermodynamic approach

This study is to modify the ecological footprint methodology by incorporating non-renewable or abiotic resources as an additional category. The use of abiotic resources can be quantified as global hectare by using thermodynamic approaches. A detailed case study on various countries including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Japan, USA, and Vietnam shows the advantage of using the new modified ecological footprint (EF) as an indicator for sustainable development. The modified EF includes not only biotic resources, but also the abiotic resources. The case study indicates that the modified EF differs from the traditional EF up to 123% in the case of Belgium, and 90% in the case of Australia. For developing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, the differences are relatively smaller (21% for Brazil and 9.4% for Vietnam). The estimated total ecological footprint of the world using the new method implies more serious problems associated with over consumption than using results from the original ecological footprint method.     

Golden Genesis and the Teotonio Vilela Foundation: commercializing PV residential electrification with a not-for-profit partner

This article presents a case study of a project which provides photovoltaic-based rural electrification in the state of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil. The project, the Luz do Sol Programme (LdS), was initiated in mid-1996 by the Golden Genesis Company (Golden) and the Fundação Teotônio Vilela (FTV). The article emphasizes some noteworthy characteristics of the project: the partnership between US commercial and Brazilian philanthropic interests; the financial aspect, a dedicated line of credit requiring only the equipment itself as security; and the local ownership and management of system operations, collections, and routine maintenance.
In 1996, the Golden Genesis Company had developed a central battery charging system to bring the price of electrification within the range of the rural poor; it financed the US content of the systems, with the Bank of the Northeast of Brazil (BN) financing the Brazilian content. The article traces the long and arduous path to establish the programme, including both bureaucratic and technical challenges. These difficulties brought the project to an impasse in August of 1998, and Golden withdrew. FTV then re-negotiated the agreement with BN, changing the technical approach to individual solar home systems. This improved the situation, and the project has since enjoyed 100% loan repayment rates from the entrepreneurs. In June 1999, BP/Solarex became FTV's new commercial partner. The project currently shows promise of becoming the commercially viable programme originally envisaged by Golden, with commercial and technical decision-making at the local level.     

Ethanol fuels: Energy security,economics, and the environment

Problems of fuel ethanol production have been the subject of numerous reports, including this analysis. The conclusions are that ethanol: does not improve U.S. energy security; is uneconomical; is not a renewable energy source; and increases environmental degradation. Ethanol production is wasteful of energy resources and does not increase energy security. Considerably more energy, much of it high- grade fossil fuels, is required to produce ethanol than is available in the energy output. About 72% more energy is used to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy in a gallon of ethanol. Ethanol production from corn is not renewable energy. Its production uses more non- renewable fossil energy resources in growing the corn and in the fermentation/distillation process than is produced as ethanol energy. Ethanol produced from corn and other food crops is also an unreliable and therefore a non-secure source of energy, because of the likelihood of uncontrollable climatic fluctuations, particularly droughts which reduce crop yields. The expected priority for corn and other food crops would be for food and feed. Increasing ethanol production would increase degradation of agricultural land and water and pollute the environment. In U.S. corn production, soil erodes some 18- times faster than soil is reformed, and, where irrigated, corn production mines water faster than recharge of aquifers. Increasing the cost of food and diverting human food resources to the costly and inefficient production of ethanol fuel raise major ethical questions. These occur at a time when more food is needed to meet the basic needs of a rapidly growing world population.     

Experimental investigation on the performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine by varying the injection pressure and injection timing using mixed biodiesel

Biodiesel is a promising fuel for compression ignition engines instead of diesel fuel. Due to the depletion of diesel fuel, an alternative fuel can be used in an engine. The experiments were conducted on a four-stroke, single cylinder CI engine. In this present investigation, an attempt has been made to study the influence of injection pressure (IP) and injection timing (IT) on the performance and emission characteristics of diesel engines by using mixed biodiesel (Thevetia peruviana, Jatropha, Pongamia, and Azadirachta indica). The injection pressure is varied from 200 to 230 bar and the injection timing is varied from 23 to 29° bTDC at an increment of 10 bar and 2° bTDC, respectively, and the results were compared with diesel. From this study, the results showed that the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) was increased by 2.4% with an increase in injection pressure and 1.5% with an increase in the injection timing for the maximum load, but lesser than diesel. Furthermore, a reduction of 5.08% of brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) has been noticed for the rise in IP and IT with loads but higher than diesel. The reduction was 34.17%, 53.85%, and 29.7% and 29.17%, 53.85%, and 21.95% of hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and smoke emissions, respectively, at 230 bar injection pressure and at 27° bTDC injection timing. Also, a significant increase in nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions at the maximum load was observed by increasing the injection pressure and injection timing.     

New public policy proposal for the management of industrial toxic substances in São Paulo State,Brazil

In order to find out an alternative to traditional environmental policies in the State of São Paulo (Brazil), which have been mainly focused on legal standard compliance for air and water emissions, as well as in soil contamination, the Environmental Agency of São Paulo State — CETESB — launched a research project entitled Industrial Toxic Substances Use Reduction Programme. The project was launched in 2006 with funding from the United States Trade and Development Agency. Its aim was to propose new policies and strategies to reduce industrial releases of toxic compounds to the environment. Its general steps were the identification of an initial toxic chemical targets list; a review of successful programmes in the United States; the development of key elements and the establishment of alternative combinations of those elements for the implementation of an indigenous programme. Since project completion, CETESB has been discussing the possibility of implementing the results through a pilot project being developed jointly with industry representatives. This pilot project will serve as a model for a broader industrial toxic substances reduction programme to be implemented in São Paulo State.     

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Lignocellulosic Ethanol Production: Biochemical Versus Thermochemical Conversion

Lignocellulosic biomass can be converted into ethanol through either biochemical or thermochemical conversion processes. Biochemical conversion involves hydrolysis and fermentation while thermochemical conversion involves gasification and catalytic synthesis. Even though these routes produce comparable amounts of ethanol and have similar energy efficiency at the plant level, little is known about their relative environmental performance from a life cycle perspective. Especially, the indirect impacts, i.e. emissions and resource consumption associated with the production of various process inputs, are largely neglected in previous studies. This article compiles material and energy flow data from process simulation models to develop life cycle inventory and compares the fossil fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption of both biomass-to-ethanol production processes. The results are presented in terms of contributions from feedstock, direct, indirect, and co-product credits for four representative biomass feedstocks i.e., wood chips, corn stover, waste paper, and wheat straw. To explore the potentials of the two conversion pathways, different technological scenarios are modeled, including current, 2012 and 2020 technology targets, as well as different production/co-production configurations. The modeling results suggest that biochemical conversion has slightly better performance on greenhouse gas emission and fossil fuel consumption, but that thermochemical conversion has significantly less direct, indirect, and life cycle water consumption. Also, if the thermochemical plant operates as a biorefinery with mixed alcohol co-products separated for chemicals, it has the potential to achieve better performance than biochemical pathway across all environmental impact categories considered due to higher co-product credits associated with chemicals being displaced. The results from this work serve as a starting point for developing full life cycle assessment model that facilitates effective decision-making regarding lignocellulosic ethanol production.