Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Brazilian Sugar Cane Ethanol Evaluated with the GREET Model Using Data Submitted to RenovaBio.

Environ Sci Technol

S&T Squared Consultants Inc., 11657 Summit Crescent, Delta, BC V4E2Z2, Canada.

Published: August 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • * A study utilized the GREET model to assess life cycle GHG emissions from Brazilian sugar cane ethanol, finding an average CI of 35.2 g CO2 equivalent per megajoule, which is 62% lower than U.S. petroleum gasoline blendstock.
  • * The main sources of GHG emissions were from on-field nitrogen oxide (NO) emissions, energy use in sugar cane farming, and transportation of the ethanol, and simulations indicated that while there are variations in CI, Brazilian sugar cane ethanol

Article Abstract

Brazil is the second-largest ethanol producer in the world, primarily using sugar cane as feedstock. To foster biofuel production, the Brazilian government implemented a national biofuel policy, known as RenovaBio, in which greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction credits are provided to biofuel producers based on the carbon intensities (CI) of the fuels they produce. In this study, we configured the GREET model to evaluate life cycle GHG emissions of Brazilian sugar cane ethanol, using data from 67 individual sugar cane mills submitted to RenovaBio in 2019/2020. The average CI per megajoule of sugar cane ethanol produced in Brazil for use in the U.S. was estimated to be 35.2 g of CO equivalent, a 62% reduction from U.S. petroleum gasoline blendstock without considering the impacts of land use change. The three major GHG sources were on-field NO emissions (24.3%), sugar cane farming energy use (24.2%), and sugar cane ethanol transport (19.3%). With the probability density functions for key input parameters derived from individual mill data, we performed stochastic simulations with the GREET model to estimate the variations in sugar cane ethanol CI and confirmed that despite the larger variations in sugar cane ethanol CI, the fuel provided a robust GHG reduction benefit compared to gasoline blendstock.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10433513PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08488DOI Listing

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