Search

This paper aims to evaluate the integration of corn in existent sugarcane mills in Brazil to increase ethanol production. The study considered an autonomous distillery factory of medium‐capacity, and the incremental benefits from corn processing during the sugarcane off‐season. A process simulation and a cost analysis were developed to estimate the technoeconomic feasibility. The data and parameters employed were in accordance with Brazilian practice. The results show that a sugarcane plant operating 4 months during the off‐season with corn requires an investment of US$ 13.4 million, obtained the return of investment in 4 years, and a revenue estimated in US$ 666K yr−1 due to ethanol surplus production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the scientific production carried out by the largest bioenergy research program in Brazil, the São Paulo Research Foundation Bioenergy Research Program (BIOEN‐FAPESP), in the period from 2008 to 2019. The study draws on a list of BIOEN publications on the Web of Science (WoS) platform, containing over 1000 articles, grouped under ResearcherID H‐6149‐2012. The methods applied in the study were based on the information specific to each article and involved the construction of networks including authors, countries, research subjects, and direct citations. Communities were built based on network properties and their content was extracted from articles abstracts, titles and keywords, using text mining techniques. We also obtained quantitative measures for BIOEN scientific output. The analysis found that BIOEN produced relevant knowledge, and contributed to the emergence of new research areas in the bioenergy sector. Overall, BIOEN was decisive for the advancement of bioenergy research in Brazil, and resulted in the expansion of the knowledge base for ethanol production. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT While individual studies from several South American countries have shown driving while intoxicated to be a problem, there are no objective systematically collected alcohol-associated driving data obtained in most South American countries. This limits their ability to implement and enforce targeted prevention strategies, evaluate whether proven prevention efforts from North America (particularly the United States and Canada) can be transferred to the South, and to sustain momentum for the improvement of road safety by demonstrating that previously implemented legal and policy changes are effective. The aim of this paper is to discuss the abysmal differences that exist between northern and southern American countries regarding the current status of driving while intoxicated prevention strategies-their implementation, impacts and effects-using Brazil as a case example. We propose a three-pronged approach to close this northern-southern American gap in driving while intoxicated prevention and intervention: (a) systematic collection on road traffic crash/injury/death as well as risk factor data, (b) passage of laws without loopholes requiring compliance with blood alcohol concentration testing and (c) provision of appropriate training and equipment to the police in concomitance with vigilant enforcement. Resources and energies must be put towards data collection, implementation of prevention strategies and enforcement in order to decrease the unacceptably high rates of these preventable driving while intoxicated deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conditions facing the Brazilian ethanol market have created a need to improve the industry's understanding of price formation, and to analyze the effects of mandatory policies and the interaction between Brazil's ethanol, agricultural, and fuel markets. In this context, this study sought to analyze the behavior of ethanol production and consumption at the national and regional levels in Brazil from 2012 to 2016; hence, the supply and demand functions are estimated at national and at regional levels using the two‐stage least squares method. Our findings indicated that gasoline and anhydrous ethanol blended gasoline were substitutes for hydrous ethanol on the demand side in Brazil. At the national level, the estimates also showed that the income elasticity of hydrous ethanol characterizes it as a normal good. At the regional level, the regions with the highest production and consumption (southeastern and central‐western Brazil) responded to price variations less elastically than the other regions (southern, northeastern, and northern Brazil). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian National Policy on Biofuels (Renovabio) sets targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) in the transportation mix. Through the policy, a financial asset known as CBIO (a Decarbonization Credit) was created. CBIOs represent the equivalent CO2 emissions prevented when substituting fossil fuels for renewable fuels and are traded on the stock market, which sets the price. Fossil fuel distributors are obliged to buy these assets and biofuel producers can issue the CBIOs on the stock market. A dynamic computable general equilibrium model was applied to estimate the CBIO prices and the annual economic and environmental impacts of RenovaBio from 2021 to 2029. The impacts on fuel and energy consumption, fuel prices, inflation, gross domestic product (GDP) and agricultural productivity considering ethanol, gasoline, biodiesel and diesel were calculated. To achieve the required decarbonization level by 2029, ethanol production must increase by 87.7%, led by a drop in its price relative to gasoline. The total fuel energy consumed would drop by 7.10% and inflation would increase by 0.35 percentage points, while GDP would increase by only 0.08% in the scenario of the last year, when the CBIO price would reach R$223.35 (~US$74.45). RenovaBio can be an effective policy to promote carbon intensity reduction and works as a hedge against unfavorable scenarios for biofuel production. Therefore, the policy can help Brazil reach its intended nationally determined contribution by boosting the use of biofuels in the country's transportation sector. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two different fractal regression methodologies were employed with the aim of understanding the relationship between prices of ethanol produced in the USA and Brazil, the most important producers of ethanol. These methodologies, which have the advantage of giving us information about the relationships between different timescales, could also provide interesting and important information about this particular market. Our results suggest, first, some differences in the basic price in these markets, and second, a positive relationship between prices (as expected) but not a one‐to‐one relationship. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian bioethanol is one of the most prominent biofuels produced on a large scale, representing 30% of the global fuel ethanol production share. Around 8.6 billion gallons were produced in 2019, second only to the US fuel ethanol production in the same period (15.8 billion gallons). Obtained from sugarcane in a highly energy‐efficient process, the biofuel, which can be used in Brazil as 100% ethanol (hydrated, minimum mass content of 92.5%) or in a volume proportion of 27% (anhydrous ethanol) in common gasoline, has contributed to the reduction of oil dependency and CO2 emissions, as well as to the development of an important economic sector. Pioneer biofuel policies and important advances in science and technology led to the establishment of a 46% renewable energy matrix. In this manuscript, an overview of the impacts of ethanol production and utilization will be given, with respect to environmental and socio‐economic concerns. The public policies and some technical aspects of sugarcane and ethanol production and energy cogeneration will be reviewed and discussed. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has been considered essential for the future consumption of biofuels in large scale and, thus, assessing the impacts on water resources is one of the priorities. The aim of this study is to assess the potential impacts of sugarcane expansion both on the quality and on the quantity of water resources, but using a publicly available database and well-established statistic procedures. The case studies were defined in São Paulo state, where the bulk of sugarcane production in Brazil is, and more specifically three regions where significant expansion recently occurred: Palmares Paulista, Pontal, and Ribeirão Preto. Time series of streamflows and precipitations (1974-2011) and water quality parameters (1989-2011) were evaluated using non-parametric tests for detecting trends and abrupt changes. Quality parameters analyzed were concentrations of potassium, total phosphorus, nitrite, nitrate, ammoniacal nitrogen, total solids, dissolved oxygen, and biochemical oxygen demand. Sugarcane cropping data were correlated with streamflows and water quality parameters. Water quality parameters were analyzed vis-à-vis sugarcane production and population growth. Significant impacts due to sugarcane cropping were detected only in the case of the smallest basin. In the three studied regions a significant increasing trend of nitrogen and biochemical oxygen demand was observed, but these results can be explained either by sugarcane-ethanol production or by the discharge of sewage and industrial effluents without appropriate treatment. Based on data availability it was not possible to rigorously determine the contribution of large-scale production of sugarcane cropping to both the quantity and the quality of water resources. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the article "Why don't northern American solutions to drinking and driving work in southern America?" by F. Pechansky and A. Chandran. She highlights the points addressed by the authors of the study regarding aspects lacking in Brazil and notes that the issue of advocacy and active popular support is not taken into consideration by the study. She opines that active participation as a critical factor to tackle the state of affairs of drinking and driving rates.

We use the wavelet coherence methodology to investigate the relations between prices of ethanol and its feedstocks. Our continuous wavelet framework allows for discovering price connections and their evolution in both time and frequency domain in the most important ethanol markets - Brazil and the USA. For both of these markets, we show that the long-run relationship between prices of ethanol and corn (in the USA) or sugar (in Brazil) is positive, strong and stable in time. Importantly, we show that the prices of feedstock lead the prices of ethanol and not the other way around. The price lead of feedstock is documented for both short- and long-run horizons. Our qualitative results hold true even when the influence of crude oil prices is accounted for by utilizing partial wavelet coherence approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrofuels are increasingly sourced and sold as a socially and environmentally beneficial solution to oil dependence. The promotion of sugar-derived ethanol as a substitute for petroleum has thus been key to state development and international trade policies by Brazil and the European Union, respectively, and subsequent investment by leading energy and food transnational corporations has transformed socio-spatial relations in the new sites of production. Brazilian rural worker testimonies, however, point to large-scale labour exclusion rather than reform and a deepening, rather than disruption, of historic power inequalities in the sector. Labour contestation challenges a converging institutional discourse of responsible technological innovation and social upgrading associated with emerging commodity chains and the 'green' economy. Although corporate and statutory response has been market-orientated certification and 'more technology' the idea of the 'techno-institutional fix' provides a power relation-attentive analysis that invites the further exploration of socially committed alternatives to food and energy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Propolis is a natural product with a variable and complex chemical composition associated with its high concentration on polyphenolic compounds. The effect of p H variation (2.0, 3.0, 4.3, 6.0 and 8.0) during aqueous and ethanolic propolis extraction was studied for up to 10 days. Total phenols and flavonoids contents were measured for the extracts by spectrophotometric assays. Antioxidant activity was measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl ( DPPH), ferric reducing antioxidant power ( FRAP) and ferric thiocyanate ( FTC) methods. The best time of extraction was up to 5 days for all samples. Basic aqueous extracts (p H 8.0) resulted in a higher concentration of compounds than the extract without p H modification, reaching an increase of 160% in flavonoids and 25% in phenols. Ethanolic extracts with p H variation resulted in an extract with 50% less polyphenols and 6% less flavonoids than extract without p H modification. The antioxidant activity was highest for ethanolic extract at p H 4.3 and aqueous extract at p H 8.0 - almost 90% and 45%, respectively, in DPPH method - and was related to the level of polyphenols by Pearson's correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article suggests a pricing model for commodities used to produce biofuel. The model is based on the concept that the deterministic component of the Wiener process is not constant and depends on time and exogenous variables. The model, which incorporates theory of storage, the convenience yield and the seasonality of harvests, was applied in the Brazilian sugar market. After predictions were made with the Kalman filter, the model produced results that were statistically more accurate than those returned by the two-factor model available in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Since 2001, Brazil has experienced a sharp increase in sugarcane production due to the upsurge in demand for sugar and ethanol, two products derived from sugarcane. This study analyses the impacts of these sugarcane expansions on economic growth. The effects are examined at the municipality level in Brazil as a whole and in the main sugarcane producing regions, the North-Northeast (NE) and the Centre-South (CS). In this latter region, an additional distinction is made between the state of São Paulo (SP) and the Centre-South region excluding São Paulo (CSex) since the bulk of the recent expansion took place in SP while most of the future expansions are planned in CSex. Estimators based on the propensity score are used to construct two types of counterfactual scenarios. The estimations in the first scenario show that municipalities in NE and CSex that expanded sugarcane production experienced economic growth as a result. No significant effect was found in SP. The second scenario focuses on CSex and establishes that sugarcane non-expanding municipalities in this region would have had higher economic growth if they had increased sugarcane production. The results of this study suggest that future sugarcane plantations should indeed be located in CSex because they contribute to economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the antioxidant capability, total phenolic content and antimicrobial activity of ethanolic extracts of seven fruits from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest were evaluated. The conditions for the extraction of crude phenolics from the fruits were determined using an experimental factorial design. Total phenolic content, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging activity and β-carotene-linoleic acid couple oxidation assays were used to evaluate the antioxidant properties of the extracts. In addition, antimicrobial activity was screened using two Gram-negative bacteria ( Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) and one Gram-positive bacterium ( Staphylococcus aureus). All native fruits assayed in this study have high potential as natural antioxidant sources. Among the seven fruits evaluated, Jabuticaba and Uvaia had the highest antioxidant activity in the DPPH and of β-carotene-linoleic acid coupled oxidation assays. In the biological assay, K. pneumoniae was the most sensitive microorganism to the fruit extracts, and the Jabuticaba extract had a slight inhibitory effect against this Gram-positive bacterium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]