Sustainable gas pathways for Brazil: from microcosm to macrocosm

Abstract

The Sustainable Gas Pathways for Brazil; from microcosm to macrocosm project will develop a range of data sets that may be on interest to other researchers and organizations across a variety of disciplines. The principal investigators are committed to contributing towards an academic knowledge-sharing environment and will endeavour to produce transparent and academically rigorous datasets and project outputs. The datasets that will arise from this project form two main categories, as follows. At the microcosm level, laboratory experiments and desktop process modelling will produce techno-economic data (process dynamics of bioethanol production, biochemical performances of dry anaerobic digester using sugarcane wastes, economic and environmental Impacts of integrated sugarcane-ethanol-biogas production processes), whilst a number of semi-structured interviews will be carried out to elicit key socio-economic impact around biogas industry. At the macrocosm level, a broader picture of the energy system in Brazil is created, covering potential pathways of gas infrastructure, the electricity system, and the broader national energy system (energy demand projections for residential, commercial, industry and transport sector, Infrastructure development pathways to serve future energy demands; model predictions for electricity and gas characteristics inducing seasonal variations; land use, carbon sequestration, water quality and drinking water and ecological impacts of biogas production). (AU)