Diagnóstico energético de rotas de escoamento do etanol da região Centro-Oeste do Brasil para exportação

In the coming years, one of the greatest challenges for agribusiness will be to improve the logistical infrastructure, once major difficulties are currently faced in production transport. In the case of ethanol, Brazil has a logistics covering multimodal transport, terminals and routes that strengthen the export corridor. Thus, this paper analyzed the energy demands in ethanol outflow transport considering routes currently designed, under construction or in operation, in order to flow ethanol outputs from Midwest Brazil (Aparecida do Taboado-MS) to the port of Sao Sebastiao (SP). Four routes were analyzed considering uni- or multimodal transport systems, which involved road, railway, waterway, and pipeline. Direct and indirect energy factors within transport operations were used to account the system inputs and outputs, which were diesel, indirect energy from machinery and equipment, labor energy, electricity, besides energy depreciation and maintenance of roads. The results highlighted the pipeline as being the modal of less energy expenditure and the road of most consumption. The waterway and railway modes also had a feasible energetic performance whether compared to the road transport.