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Since the 1970s, Brazil has carried out the most successful world program of commercial biomass for use and production of energy by stimulating its sugarcane industry and promoting the large-scale production of ethanol nationwide in response to the first oil shock. Today, the technologies behind ethanol production are well established. Brazil is the world's largest sugarcane supplier, producing its ethanol at a competitive price. If other sugarcane producing countries decided to join Brazil's move toward the production of this biofuel, what impacts might there be for each country's economy and employment? This is what we investigate in this paper. Prime candidates for ethanol production include Australia, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States of America. We evaluated the potential socioeconomic impacts of developing this promising industry by using an input–output approach. More specifically, we adapted the Brazilian method of producing ethanol to these countries' distinct economies. We augmented the input–output table of each country, inserting a new ethanol industry based on the Brazilian ethanol production model. We also augmented their new ethanol industry's sales following a hypothetical hydrous and anhydrous ethanol consumption scenario. Thereafter, we reconcile the national accounts, concluding our analysis by quantifying and comparing the different net effects of this new industry for each of the assessed countries for the year of 2009. We demonstrate which industries would be expected to be positively or negatively impacted by this substitution in each country; and find that not all of the countries we assessed would experience positive socioeconomic results from emulating Brazil's production of ethanol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the past decade, the sugarcane ethanol industry in Brazil has increased its production capacity to meet rising domestic demand for ethanol. However, to achieve this growth the industry has had to expand into new frontiers in the Brazilian Cerrado, specifically in the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul, which is now the second largest producing area of ethanol in Brazil. We argue that the expansion into the Brazilian Cerrado is a result of the interactions between the increase in demand, governmental policies, infrastructure, and factors that have prevented traditional sugarcane producing regions from meeting the increasing demand for ethanol. This paper analyzes the policies that have shaped the sugarcane industry in Brazil and the expansion of the industry across the country. The policies and issues examined include those that led to the concentration and consolidation of the sugarcane industry in the state of São Paulo and the consequences of this consolidation; the influence of governmental policies on the decision-making process of producers and industry; the state-level policies designed to expand the industry into Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul states; infrastructure development; and the Sugarcane Agroecological Zoning policies. Through this study we conclude that the ethanol industry identified the Cerrado states as an opportunity for investment, given the good agricultural conditions for producing sugarcane, affordable land prices and favorable state-level fiscal incentive policies. In addition, there is a need for further regional development policies as the interaction between the sugarcane sector and regional government is likely to continue into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethanol production chain is a complex system with a considerable number of actors and relationships. While Brazil stands out as a major producer of sugarcane ethanol, the production model in the north-eastern and southern regions is typically formed by small and medium production units, mostly associated to family-farming and associative production. This feature changes the relationships and profiles of the production chain, requiring understanding for the development of appropriate environmental, political, economic, social, ethical, and technological actions. This paper systemically maps variables that act in ethanol production chain in Southern Brazil, seeking to understand the interrelationships among its actors. Data collection was based on a review of the technical and academic literature and semi-structured interviews with different experts and actors of the chain. Systems dynamics diagrams model how the chain is configured and the main cause-effect interrelationships between the actors identified. Scenario analysis supports the analysis and discussion of the modelled context, seeking to contribute to the discussion about the competitiveness and economic sustainability of biofuel chains integrating associative production and family-farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise in global demand for ethanol has caused an expansion of ethanol mills into new areas to increase supply. Ethanol mills are supply-oriented firms; thus, they seek locations near agricultural feedstocks to ensure access and to reduce transaction costs. In Brazil, the rise of ethanol production has been more significant in the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. Expansion of the sugarcane ethanol industry into this new frontier is a challenge because sugarcane is not a traditional crop in this region. The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors determining the location decision of ethanol mills in new producing areas. For the analysis, we focus on the new sugarcane ethanol plants in Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul, we developed a probit and a spatial autoregressive probit model that incorporates agricultural conditions, distance to markets, infrastructure, and policy. The results indicate that counties with agricultural tradition have a higher probability of a mill locating there (0.0918). The presence of rural syndicates in a county increases the likelihood of a mill deciding to locate in that county by 0.083. The county's distance to an operating mill in 2002 decreases in 0.00006 the probability of a new mill locating in that county. Policymakers should focus on policies that promote the institutional organization of producers, development of the transportation infrastructure, and utilize the agricultural tradition to attract new mills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work brings a refined estimation of the land use change and derived CO2 emissions associated with sugarcane cultivation, including changes in management practices and refined land-use carbon stocks, over the last two decades for Brazil's center–south and north regions. The analysis was carried out at the rural property level, considering spatially explicit land conversion data. With the refinements, we found a net carbon removal of 9.8 TgCO2∙yr−1 in sugarcane cultivation areas in the 2000–2020 period, which was due to the expansion of sugarcane over poor quality pastures (55% of the gross removals), croplands (15%) and mosaic (14%) areas, and the transition from the conventional burned harvesting to unburned (16%). Moreover, 98.4% of expansion was over existent agricultural areas. Considering all the land use changes within sugarcane-producing rural properties, the net removal is even larger, of 17 TgCO2∙yr−1, which is due to vegetation recovery. This suggests that public policies and private control mechanisms might have been effective not only to control deforestation but also to induce carbon removals associated with sugarcane cultivation. These results indicate sugarcane production system and derived products as contributors to net carbon removals in the land sector in Brazil and should be considered for both bioenergy and agricultural sustainability evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil plays a prominent role in the global production of sugarcane and contributes to the renewable energy sector by producing ethanol. However, few studies have explored the adoption of the circular economy in the sugarcane ethanol sector. This article is aimed at analyzing and prioritizing barriers to the adoption of the circular economy in leading Brazilian sugarcane ethanol companies. For this, the analytical hierarchy process method and case studies methods were used. The main barriers identified were economic and financial, mainly due to dependence on high investments in production process technologies and the resulting uncertainties about returns. Another barrier was the lack of Brazilian legislation concerning the circular economy. We discuss the implications of our findings and present mechanisms for overcoming barriers and the role in supporting circular economy adoption in emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil has a long history of sugarcane development and since the 2000s has undergone a significant increase in land cultivated with sugarcane. Policy-driven demand and a growing international market mean that sugarcane cultivation in Brazil is expected to increase in the coming years. Rising land prices and strengthened environmental legislation in São Paulo state – where the bulk of production occurs – have led farmers and investors to seek new land to cultivate. As a result, the Centre- West region, including the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, has become an epicentre for sugarcane expansion in Brazil. While the social, economic and environmental impacts of sugarcane have been well documented for the state of São Paulo, much less is known about these impacts in new sugarcane frontier regions. This paper addresses an important gap in the literature through an assessment of the relationship between human development and presence or absence of a sugar mill in municipalities in Mato Grosso do Sul. Drawing on the UN Human Development Index and the Social Responsibility Index of São Paulo, this paper develops a method to examine the relationship between the presence of sugarcane processing mills and human development at the municipal level in Mato Grosso do Sul. The paper finds evidence that municipalities with a mill perform relatively better in terms of human development than those without, but that municipalities with mills already performed relatively better than those without. This raises important questions about how are and where the socio-economic benefits of sugarcane materialise. • Mato Grosso do Sul is an epicentre of sugarcane expansion in Brazil. • Investigates the relationship between human development and presence of a sugarcane mill. • Develops a measure of human development for municipalities in Mato Grosso do Sul. • Finds evidence of a relationship between sugar mills and municipal development. • Preference for establishing mills in the most developed municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Dyna is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin, Facultad de Minas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents an economic outlook of the ethanol industry in Brazil considering different biomass feedstocks and different industrial processing options. A spreadsheet model was designed to account for different feedstocks and industrial processes, and expected trends in biomass yield, sugar- and fibre content, industrial scale and efficiency. Sugarcane and energycane cultivation costs may be reduced from 35 US$ 2010 /TC in 2010 to 27 US$ 2010 /TC and 22 US$ 2010 /TC in 2030 respectively. Eucalyptus and elephant grass cultivation costs could be reduced from 32 to 23 US$ 2010 /tonne wet and 38 to 26 US$ 2010 /tonne wet for eucalyptus and elephant grass. Total ethanol production costs of first generation processing may decrease from 700 US$ 2010 /m 3 in 2010, to 432 US$ 2010 /m 3 in 2030. First generation ethanol production costs may decrease by reduced feedstock costs, increase in sugar content, utilization of cane trash, and use of sweet sorghum. Furthermore, the improvement in industrial efficiency of the first generation process, increasing industrial scale and change to an improved technology are other measures. For second generation technology utilizing eucalyptus, the total ethanol production costs could be strongly reduced to 424 US$ 2010 /m 3 in 2030. Costs reduction measures for second generation industrial processing include reduced feedstock costs, increasing industrial efficiency and scale, and a change to more advanced industrial process. Overall, biomass yield, increase in sugar content of sugarcane, and improved industrial efficiency are important parameters in total ethanol production costs. Ongoing RD&D effort and commercialization of second generation industrial processing may result in the lowest ethanol production costs for second generation processing in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Periódico Tchê Química is the property of Grupo Tche Quimica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ethanol is an energy commodity and a biofuel that has contributed to mitigate the use of fossil fuels. Nonetheless, the environmental benefits derived from the use of ethanol can occur at the expense of the agricultural commodities prices, affecting their volatilities and efficiency. This problem occurs because most of the raw materials currently used to produce biofuels, such as corn in the US, sugarcane in Brazil and oilseeds in Europe, are also important global commodities. This work adopts several mathematical tools, namely the Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, fractal dimension, and the Hurst and Lyapunov exponents. This set of tools measures the market efficiency and the prices' predictability for the ethanol and some agriculture commodities that revealed price transmission (cointegration), in a previous work. The results show that, in general, the ethanol has a lower predictability horizon than the other commodities. Moreover, it is discussed a quantitative measure to assess the market performance, by means of the efficiency index. We observe that the ethanol efficiency is similar to the other agricultural commodities evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies equity outcomes associated with three biofuel systems in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. Acknowledging that winners and losers are socially and politically generated, the article identifies some of the factors behind the distribution of winners and losers along different stages of three sugarcane–ethanol supply chains. Analyzing the outcomes for equity within each case study reveals an uneven distribution that, we argue, is related to the procedure and structure of the given sugarcane–ethanol system, and the recognition of the impacts on different actors within those structures. Increasing equity in sugarcane–ethanol systems will require greater openness in decision-making processes, in order that multiple voices are taken into account in the promotion, production, and consumption of biofuels—particularly those of smaller and less powerful actors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT This study reveals five critical areas that Brazil's sugarcane-based ethanol industry could capitalize on to incorporate sustainability into their firms' strategies. The emergent theoretical framework represents a starting point for further investigations aimed at integrating the sustainability construct and strategies for the industry. A growing body of literature calls for strategic management to adapt to complex and ever-changing environments and sustainability trends. For many firms in developing economies, sustainability remains isolated from mainstream strategy, resulting in reactive approaches on the part of management. A qualitative research method - grounded theory - was used to induct from data. Five themes emerged from the analysis providing guidance on where sustainability-related strategies ought to begin. This research posits that existing sectoral innovation systems could be used to channel sustainability-driven innovations. In addition, a combination of public and private efforts to foster innovations based on the emergent themes could increase the value of industry under study, while lessening its social and environmental footprint. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]