Room: Auditorium 1
Date: Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Time: 10:15 - 11:30 CEST
Session code BP.1
Policies and Sustainability
Revisiting Energy Transition: How Brazil's Bioenergy Successes Defy Conventional Timelines
Short Introductive summary
This paper aims to challenge the prevailing notion of bioenergy as a sector inherently resistant to rapid advancement. By focusing on Brazil's experience, we demonstrate that under the right conditions, bioenergy can sometimes drive fast-paced energy transitions and underlining technological and sustainability improvements. We present a series of case studies illustrating this phenomenon, including the increase in biodiesel blending, double-cropping corn alongside soybeans and the development of corn-based ethanol, the transition from sugarcane burning and manual harvesting to mechanisation, and the increase in power generation capacity from sugarcane bagasse, and a short-term revolution in the Brazilian vehicle sector. Finally, we combine these examples with an outline of an unprecedented favourable context to propose we are about to see steep deployment curves of key bioenergy technologies in Brazil, including biomethane, 2G ethanol, sustainable aviation and maritime fuels. We offer a perspective that can place bioenergy as a key contributor to trajectories outlining ambitious substitution of fossil fuels and exponential growth in renewable energy.
Presenter
Suani COELHO
University of Sao Paulo - Julio Romano Meneghini, BRAZIL
Presenter's biography
Short bio. Suani Teixeira Coelho is a Chemical Engineer, Master and PhD in Energy in the Graduate Program in Energy from the University of São Paulo, where she is currently lecturer, thesis advisor, PD supervisor and coordinator of the Research Group on Bioenergy (GBIO). Senior Professor
Biographies and Short introductive summaries are supplied directly by presenters and are published here unedited
Co-authors:
D.A. Gandelman, Brazil's Energy Research Office - EPE, Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
M.D.B. Ribeiro, Brazil's Energy Research Office - EPE, Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
R.M. Henriques, Brazil's Energy Research Office - EPE, Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
R.B. Araujo, Brazil's Energy Research Office - EPE, Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
S.T. Coelho, University of São Paulo, BRAZIL
Session reference: BP.1.3