T10 AM LCA and Business Benefits
Tuesday, 15 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 11:40 AM in 341-342

(MOU-1117-857211) Bioenergy carriers evaluation under some environmental aspects.

Mourad, A.L.^{1, 2}, Sevá, A. O. ¹, ¹ Department of Energy, Mechanical Engineering Faculty, State Univertisy of Campinas - DE/FEM/UNICAMP, Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil² Packaging Technology Center, Institute of Food Technology - CETEA/ITAL, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT- The world demand for fuels of renewable origin will be growing, and Brazil, as a tropical country has excellent climatic conditions for biomass production. The introduction of a biofuel program has been quite motivated by the Brazilian government. One of the main reasons for this dissemination is the economic and social development foresee for the different regions in the country based on a program that motivates its production from different crops. The excellent climatic conditions favor the high biomass production in Brazil. Using Life Cycle Approach and the agricultural recommendations published by the main organization of agricultural research in Brazil this article discusses the use of agricultural defensives, fertilizers, correctives and land use for the biocarriers production from 2 different oleaginous sources: sunflower and soybean. The obtained data quantify these inputs for the production of 1 ton of oil. Traditional farms use fertilizers, correctives and defensives that have significant environmental impacts. In general, soy requires more incomes than sunflower tillage: 1.4 times the cultivation area, 5.7 times the correctives, 1.7 times the fertilizers and 2 times the agricultural defensives. This life cycle approach allows the discussion about some environmental impacts associated with the so called "clean energy". The development of renewable energy sources has been an world effort for many years. Nevertheless, it is important to balance the social benefits and the agricultural environmental impacts due to the use of these new biofuels.

Key words: biofuel, environmental impacts, soy, sunflower