Bioprocesses for biofuels: an overview of the Brazilian case

Abstract

Renewables are 46% in the Brazilian energy matrix, while the world scenario differs from this context to use only 13% of these resources. The biomass conversion using bioprocess has great potential to be applied in Brazil due to its large agroindustry which can produce a variety of feedstocks and byproducts that can be converted into biofuels and chemicals. The production of first-generation ethanol using sugarcane is a conventional technology in Brazil. This ethanol is the most competitive in the world, and Brazilian production reached 23.64 billion L in 2012/2013 season. Sugarcane bagasse generated from ethanol production and other biomasses obtained from forest and wood industries, crop residues, and grasses can be deconstructed to obtain sugars. These sugars may be bioconverted into second-generation ethanol and chemicals. Biodiesel is another biofuel that has been produced in Brazil. Although the commercial route to obtain biodiesel uses chemical conversion, there are researches investigating the biochemical route. Furthermore, some topics about microalgae use for biofuels are introduced. Therefore, this paper has the aim to present bioprocesses used in bioenergy production and the Brazilian overview on the conventional technology of first-generation sugarcane ethanol production. Moreover, bench studies and demonstration facilities that have been developed in the country regarding the advanced technologies are presented.