Page 82 - Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

74 Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

1Introduction

With the growth of the world population and the progressive increase in
living standards, the consumption of goods and energy has also increased,
along with changes in soil use and deforestation, intensive agriculture prac-
tices, industrialization, and consumption of fossil fuel-based energy. All this
has contributed to a gradual increase in the concentration of greenhouse
gases (GHG) in the atmosphere and decrease in the available fossil fuel
reserves.
The Paris Conference on Climate Change confirmed the international
commitment of maintaining the increase in global average temperature
“well below 2°C with efforts directed to limiting temperature increases
in 1.5°C above preindustrial levels.” However, the current trajectory of
emissions is more aligned with a 4.0°C increase until 2100, and even if
the promises made before the Paris Agreement and the intended contribu-
tions are effectively carried out, there is 66% probability of not fulfilling the
objective established (Sharmina et al., 2017).
Among the 17 objectives published by the United Nations to transform
our world, the 7th states that until 2030, international cooperation must
be reinforced to facilitate access to clean energy, including renewable
energy, energy efficiency, and advanced and cleaner fossil fuel technologies,
promoting investments in energy infrastructure and in clean energy technol-
ogies (ONU, 2015).
Bioethanol and biodiesel are the most important liquid biofuels employed
in the transportation sector in the world (REN21, 2018). Obviously, there
are several studies that have evaluated different types of biomass for energy
purposes (Bergmann et al., 2013; Ho et al., 2014; Chacartegui et al., 2015;
Manochio et al., 2017; Veljkovi et al., 2018; Ambat et al., 2018; Delgado
c
et al., 2018; Araujo et al., 2018; Neves et al., 2018; Coelho Jr et al., 2018).
However, some studies (Seabra et al., 2011; Yanez Angarita et al., 2009) have
demonstrated that the best biomass types for the production of ethanol and
biodiesel are sugarcane and African palm (dend^e), as these cultures present
3 1 1
high biofuel yield, 7.6m ha year ethanol (Leal et al., 2013a) and
5tha 1 year 1 oil (Bergmann et al., 2013). Besides, these cultures are highly
available and therefore can be utilized for energy purposes.
In fact, there are several possibilities for the utilization of high amounts of
biomass that are more efficient than current practice. In biorefineries, bio-
mass can produce not only electricity and biofuels, but also chemical prod-
ucts and food. This represents the creation of a new chain of added value to