New challenges for the sugarcane industry in Brazil

Abstract

The low carbon economy has pushed the discussion about energy worldwide. In the Brazilian case the sugarcane industry has a great potential as an alternative to the fossil fuels. In face of this challenge, this paper aims to better understand the bottlenecks of the sugarcane industry to expand the production in Brazil and to highlight the role and the potential of the bioelectricity cogeneration and the second generation ethanol (2G) throughout. The main conclusions pointed out an important potential of this sector in terms of energy production in Brazil for next decades, furthermore, highlighted the necessity to improve the second generation ethanol and bioelectricity cogeneration technologies in Brazil.