Biomass resources for energy in North-Eastern Brazil

Due to the high dependency on hydroelectric power generation, Brazil faced a power shortage in 2001. In order to remedy the situation and avoid more severe power crises in the future, the Brazilian Government launched incentive programmes to encourage thermal and renewable power generation. The Programme of Incentives to Alternative Sources (PROINFA) is mainly devoted to the utilisation of biomass. The success of PROINFA depends on the availability of reliable studies for assessing existing biomass resources and the viability of their utilisation for power generation. In this study, energy potentials of the main biomass resources in the north-eastern region of Brazil have been assessed. The economy of the north-eastern region of Brazil is heavily dependent on its sugar industry. Biomass available from sugarcane cultivation and processing represents an annual regional energy resource of 40.5 TWh at an average cost of US$ 0.005/kWh. Bamboo, cultivated as a dedicated energy crop, has the second largest annual energy potential of 30.8 TWh at an average cost of US$ 0.009/kWh. Municipal solid waste, generated in the region, has an annual energy potential of about 16.7 TWh.

[1]  Colomba Di Blasi,et al.  Product Distribution from Pyrolysis of Wood and Agricultural Residues , 1999 .

[2]  K. Shaine Tyson,et al.  Future potential for MSW energy development , 1996 .

[3]  Janis Gravitis,et al.  Studies of the Brazilian sugarcane bagasse carbonisation process and products properties , 1999 .

[4]  Andrew Porteous,et al.  Energy from waste incineration — a state of the art emissions review with an emphasis on public acceptability , 2001 .

[5]  Peter McKendry,et al.  Energy production from biomass (Part 1): Overview of biomass. , 2002, Bioresource technology.

[6]  J. Goldemberg,et al.  The Brazilian fuel-alcohol program , 1993 .

[7]  S Tafdrup,et al.  Viable energy production and waste recycling from anaerobic digestion of manure and other biomass materials , 1995 .

[8]  James L. Easterly,et al.  Overview of biomass and waste fuel resources for power production , 1996 .

[9]  Frank Rosillo-Calle,et al.  TOWARDS PROALCOOL II—A REVIEW OF THE BRAZILIAN BIOETHANOL PROGRAMME , 1998 .

[10]  D. O. Hall,et al.  Will biomass be the environmentally friendly fuel of the future , 1998 .

[11]  Thore Berntsson,et al.  CHP in the pulp industry using black liquor gasification : Thermodynamic analysis , 1998 .

[12]  Ralph E.H. Sims,et al.  Bioenergy — a renewable carbon sink , 2001 .

[13]  B. Jenkins,et al.  Combustion properties of biomass , 1998 .

[14]  Piramanayagam Shanmughavel,et al.  Biomass production in an age series of Bambusa bambos plantations , 2001 .

[15]  C. Tiba.  Solar radiation in the Brazilian Northeast , 2001 .

[16]  I. F. Cavalcanti,et al.  Atmospheric Circulation Features Associated with Rainfall Variability over Southern Northeast Brazil , 2001 .

[17]  J.M.O. Scurlock,et al.  Bamboo: an overlooked biomass resource? , 2000 .

[18]  Sergio Valdir Bajay,et al.  Energy supply from municipal wastes: The potential of biogas-fuelled buses in Brazil , 1999 .

[19]  Henry Kelly,et al.  Renewable energy : sources for fuels and electricity , 1993 .

[20]  R. Bain,et al.  Biomass-fired power generation , 1998 .

[21]  S. Peres,et al.  Catalytic Indirectly Heated Gasification of Bagasse , 1998 .

[22]  Mohammad. Rasul,et al.  Physical properties of bagasse , 1999 .

[23]  Richard Goldman,et al.  Promotion of biomass cogeneration with power export in the Indian sugar industry , 1998 .

[24]  S. Ghosh,et al.  Biogasification of solid wastes by two-phase anaerobic fermentation , 1999 .

[25]  José Goldemberg.  The evolution of ethanol costs in Brazil , 1996 .

[26]  A. Demirbas,et al.  Biomass resource facilities and biomass conversion processing for fuels and chemicals , 2001 .

[27]  Martin H. Bender,et al.  Economic feasibility review for community-scale farmer cooperatives for biodiesel , 1999 .

[28]  Alcides Lopes Leão,et al.  Potential of municipal solid waste (MSW) as a source of energy in São Paulo: its impact on CO2 balance , 1998 .

[29]  O. Braunbeck,et al.  Prospects for green cane harvesting and cane residue use in Brazil , 1999 .

[30]  Ann-Sofi E. Näsholm,et al.  Energy studies of different cogeneration systems for black liquor gasification , 1997 .

[31]  R. L. Bain,et al.  Ethanol and methanol from cellulosic biomass , 1993 .

[32]  Alcides Codeceira Neto.  Assessment of novel power generation systems for the biomass industry , 1999 .

[33]  J. M. Owens,et al.  Renewable methane from anaerobic digestion of biomass , 1997 .

[34]  D. Tillman,et al.  Wood Combustion: Principles, Processes, and Economics , 1981 .

[35]  G. H. Babcock,et al.  Steam / its generation and use , 1972 .

[36]  J. Moreira,et al.  The alcohol program , 1999 .

[37]  Peter Knoef Harrie Stassen Hubert Quaak,et al.  Energy from Biomass: A Review of Combustion and Gasification Technologies , 1999 .

[38]  J. Casey.  Pulping and papermaking , 1952 .

[39]  M. Nassar,et al.  Thermal characteristics of bagasse , 1996 .

[40]  R. Jorapur,et al.  98/00444 Sugarcane leaf-bagasse gasifiers for industrial heating applications , 1997 .