Brazilian sugarcane ethanol as an expandable green alternative to crude oil use

Deepak Jaiswal; Amanda P. De Souza; Søren Larsen; David S. Lebauer; Fernando E. Miguez; Gerd Sparovek; Germán Bollero; Marcos S. Buckeridge; Stephen P. Long

doi:10.1038/nclimate3410

Brazilian sugarcane ethanol as an expandable green alternative to crude oil use

Deepak Jaiswal, Amanda P. De Souza, Søren Larsen, David S. Lebauer, Fernando E. Miguez, Gerd Sparovek, Germán Bollero, Marcos S. Buckeridge, Stephen P. Long

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Abstract

Reduction of CO 2 emissions will require a transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources. Expansion of Brazilian sugarcane ethanol provides one near-term scalable solution to reduce CO 2 emissions from the global transport sector. In contrast to corn ethanol, the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol system may offset 86% of CO 2 emissions compared to oil use, and emissions resulting from land-use change to sugarcane are paid back in just 2-8 years. But, it has been uncertain how much further expansion is possible given increasing demand for food and animal feed, climate change impacts and protection of natural ecosystems. We show that Brazilian sugarcane ethanol can provide the equivalent of 3.63-12.77 Mb d -1 of crude oil by 2045 under projected climate change while protecting forests under conservation and accounting for future land demand for food and animal feed production. The corresponding range of CO 2 offsets is 0.55-2.0 Gigatons yr -1. This would displace 3.8-13.7% of crude oil consumption and 1.5-5.6% of net CO 2 emission globally relative to data for 2014.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	788-792
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Climate Change
Volume	7
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3410
State	Published - Nov 1 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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Jaiswal, D., De Souza, A. P., Larsen, S., Lebauer, D. S., Miguez, F. E., Sparovek, G., Bollero, G., Buckeridge, M. S., & Long, S. P. (2017). Brazilian sugarcane ethanol as an expandable green alternative to crude oil use. Nature Climate Change, 7(11), 788-792. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3410

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