Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Brazilian Sugar Cane Ethanol Evaluated with the GREET Model Using Data Submitted to RenovaBio
Abstract
Brazil is the second-largest ethanol producer in the world, primarily using sugar cane as feedstock. To foster biofuel production, the Brazilian government implemented a national biofuel policy, known as RenovaBio, in which greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction credits are provided to biofuel producers based on the carbon intensities (CI) of the fuels they produce. In this study, we configured the GREET model to evaluate life cycle GHG emissions of Brazilian sugar cane ethanol, using data from 67 individual sugar cane mills submitted to RenovaBio in 2019/2020. The average CI per megajoule of sugar cane ethanol produced in Brazil for use in the U.S. was estimated to be 35.2 g of CO2 equivalent, a 62% reduction from U.S. petroleum gasoline blendstock without considering the impacts of land use change. The three major GHG sources were on-field N2O emissions (24.3%), sugar cane farming energy use (24.2%), and sugar cane ethanol transport (19.3%). With the probability density functions for key input parameters derived from individual mill data, we performed stochastic simulations with the GREET model to estimate the variations in sugar cane ethanol CI and confirmed that despite the larger variations in sugar cane ethanol CI, the fuel provided a robust GHG reductionmore »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
- Systems Assessment Center, Energy Systems and Infrastructure Analysis Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States
- Systems Assessment Center, Energy Systems and Infrastructure Analysis Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States, Sustainability Sciences Division, Indigo Ag, Inc., 500 Rutherford Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02129, United States
- S&T Squared Consultants Inc., 11657 Summit Crescent, Delta, BC V4E2Z2, Canada
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1993338
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1995176
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Science and Technology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Environmental Science and Technology Journal Volume: 57 Journal Issue: 32; Journal ID: ISSN 0013-936X
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Brazilian sugar cane ethanol; RenovaBio; life cycle analysis; land use change; greenhouse gas emissions
Citation Formats
Liu, Xinyu, Kwon, Hoyoung, Wang, Michael, and O’Connor, Don. Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Brazilian Sugar Cane Ethanol Evaluated with the GREET Model Using Data Submitted to RenovaBio. United States: N. p., 2023.
Web. doi:10.1021/acs.est.2c08488.
Liu, Xinyu, Kwon, Hoyoung, Wang, Michael, & O’Connor, Don. Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Brazilian Sugar Cane Ethanol Evaluated with the GREET Model Using Data Submitted to RenovaBio. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08488
Liu, Xinyu, Kwon, Hoyoung, Wang, Michael, and O’Connor, Don. Tue .
"Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Brazilian Sugar Cane Ethanol Evaluated with the GREET Model Using Data Submitted to RenovaBio". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08488.
@article{osti_1993338,
title = {Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Brazilian Sugar Cane Ethanol Evaluated with the GREET Model Using Data Submitted to RenovaBio},
author = {Liu, Xinyu and Kwon, Hoyoung and Wang, Michael and O’Connor, Don},
abstractNote = {Brazil is the second-largest ethanol producer in the world, primarily using sugar cane as feedstock. To foster biofuel production, the Brazilian government implemented a national biofuel policy, known as RenovaBio, in which greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction credits are provided to biofuel producers based on the carbon intensities (CI) of the fuels they produce. In this study, we configured the GREET model to evaluate life cycle GHG emissions of Brazilian sugar cane ethanol, using data from 67 individual sugar cane mills submitted to RenovaBio in 2019/2020. The average CI per megajoule of sugar cane ethanol produced in Brazil for use in the U.S. was estimated to be 35.2 g of CO2 equivalent, a 62% reduction from U.S. petroleum gasoline blendstock without considering the impacts of land use change. The three major GHG sources were on-field N2O emissions (24.3%), sugar cane farming energy use (24.2%), and sugar cane ethanol transport (19.3%). With the probability density functions for key input parameters derived from individual mill data, we performed stochastic simulations with the GREET model to estimate the variations in sugar cane ethanol CI and confirmed that despite the larger variations in sugar cane ethanol CI, the fuel provided a robust GHG reduction benefit compared to gasoline blendstock.},
doi = {10.1021/acs.est.2c08488},
journal = {Environmental Science and Technology},
number = 32,
volume = 57,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2023},
month = {Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2023}
}
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