Energy Systems and How Bioenergy Fits into the Main Energy System

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• Energy Systems and How Bioenergy Fits into the
  Main Energy System
• Prof. Roberto Schaeffer
• PPE/COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,
  Brazil
• 1st Workshop ESSP Bioenergy
• Bioenergy and Earth Sustainablility
• Piracicaba, SP, Brazil, July 19-21, 2008

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Key Messages

• Bioenergy will only grow in importance if it is
  introduced through conventional fossil fuels
  rather than in opposition to them
• It is better to think about Alternative Energy
  Systems rather than Alternative Energy Sources
• Alternative energy sources/bioenergy will never
  have the importance fossil fuels have today
• Energy efficiency, and changes in patterns of
  energy consumption, are the only final solution

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Why Bioenergy?

• What are the (different) motivations for the
  growing interest in (modern) bioenergy these
  days?
• In developing countries (1) as a means for
  modernizing biomass use while helping to
  address energy costs
• In developed countries (1) as a means for
  providing greater access to (mainly) clean liquid
  fuels while (2) helping to address energy
  security and (3) global warming concerns
  associated with petroleum fuels
• And for both, to pave the way for new energy
  systems

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World Primary Energy Demand
18
18
16
16
14
14
12
12
10
10
billion tonnes of oil equivalent
billion tonnes of oil equivalent
8
8
6
6
4
4
2
2
0
0
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
2030
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
2030
Global demand grows by more than half over the
next quarter of a century, with coal use rising
most in absolute terms
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Substitutability of Biofuels with Common
Petroleum-derived Fuels
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And What Is the Brazilian Experience with
Bioenergy?

• Ethanol use in Brazil as an automotive fuel
  started in the 1930s, but it was extensively
  promoted after the two major oils shocks of the
  1970s with its Proalcool program
• First phase (1975-79) as a gasoline additive
• Second phase (1979-85) as a gasoline substitute
• Deterioration phase (1985-2002)
• Current phase (2003 onwards) Flex-fuel vehicles
• Plus firewood in the household sector, charcoal
  in the iron and steel industry, and sugarcane
  bagasse for power generation today

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Brazilian Domestic Energy Supply
8
Energy Demand by Source in Brazil
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Brazil vs. World
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Challenges Faced by Bioenergy to Really Become
Important in Relative Terms

• Cost (depending upon how environmental
  externalities are valued)
• Limited potential, particularly in the case of
  first-generation biofuels (if ethanol is to
  replace 20 of world gasoline by 2010, world
  supply would need to be multiplied by 8, or
  Brazilian ethanol production by 23)
• Growth in fuel demand as a whole
• Existing infrastructure for conventional sources
• Vulnerabilities to climate change

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Alternative Energy Sources or Integrated
Alternative Energy Systems?

• Non-conventional oil reserves are growing
• Oil companies will not loose their importance
• Some of the barriers for developing alternative
  energy sources derive from the virtues, and
  not from the vices, of oil
• Alternative energy sources can be introduced
  through oil rather than in opposition to it
• Alternative energy systems can produce energy
  carriers for multi-fuel and multi-product
  strategies, integrating oil with bioenergy
• Energyplexes, or the refinery of the future,
  could be the locus for this transition, with
  the production of synthetic fuels
• Synthetic fuels can be produced from the
  gasification of fossil fuels and biomass, with a
  possible sequestration of carbon

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Alternative Energy Sources or Integrated
Alternative Energy Systems?

• Alternative energy sources would no longer be
  sources of energy that compete with oil over the
  short term, but would rather constitute feestocks
  for integrated alternative systems, complementing
  first, and replacing in the logn term, oil
• In this process, oil could be seen as a modern
  Lance of Peleus, a contemporary sword that both
  cuts and heals

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How to Integrate Bioenergy into Energy Systems?

• Electricity
• Bioenergy for power generation and energy
  efficiency have to go hand-by-hand
• Biofuels
• Greater integration with the oil industry is
  needed (alternative energy sources or alternative
  energy systems?) and energy efficiency can also
  play a much greater role

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Final Considerations

• The Brazilian experience with bioenergy can teach
  interesting lessons to the world
• But probably, with the exception of Brazil,
  bioenergy will never have the importance fossil
  fuels have today
• A more efficient use of energy and, more
  importantly, changes in patterns of consumption
  are the only final solution for the various
  energy and environmental problems facing mankind