Bioenergy innovation and sustainable mobility: Deployment feedstock full potentials

Abstract

This chapter addresses how technological innovation in agribusiness should strengthen the synergies among different feedstock production systems, lower carbon footprint and create new business ventures based on bioenergy and bioproducts. We draw on examples from sugarcane from Brazil, where multiple feedstock production systems are being deployed for the production of bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts, creating operational models for biorefineries. We make the case that sustainable mobility frameworks based on biofuels depend more on how agricultural landscapes are used, than on the feedstock conversion systems themselves. The production of multiple feedstock products at landscape level is crucial for sustainable mobility because it optimizes land use, diversifies the sources of income from farmers, reduces the food versus fuel competition and reduces biofuel carbon footprint. We also present an assessment of the biodiesel program in Brazil, which was launched in 2005 and is currently blended with diesel at a mandatory 5% level. By November 1, 2011, the world population will have reached 7 billion people and more likely by 2050, 9 billion, a demographic turning point as well as a major shift in global geopolitics and consumption patterns of food, energy, water and other resources. The challenges that this presents will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future, while climatic instability and increased severity of pests and disease will affect our capacity to produce goods and services. Agriculture must be at the center of supplying food in quantity and quality necessary to feed an aging population, with people living longer and healthier lives. But several looming challenges remain which must be addressed for agriculture to be successful in fulfilling these needs in a sustainable manner and requires a global coordinated effort. Feeding 9 billion people in 2050 will require the development of new agribusiness models, new technologies and innovative ways of delivering an array of bioproducts from multi-functional agricultural landscapes. Innovation at different feedstock chains can also mitigate price volatility associated with the uncertainties of single product delivery, and the development of competencies and distinctiveness of the bioenergy and bioproducts coming from these landscapes, and thus contributing to sustainable mobility frameworks based on biofuels.