Cogeração de Eletricidade Utilizando Bambu no Brasil: Aspectos Técnicos Econômicos e Ambientais

Abstract

GUARNETTI, Rodrigo Luiz. Cogeneration of Electricity Using Bamboo in Brazil: Technical Aspects, Economic and Environmental. 2013, 156f. Doctorate Thesis. Graduate Program on Energy, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, 2013. Bamboo is a grass, woody perennial with good biomass productivity per hectare. Bamboo can be grown virtually anywhere in the Brazilian territory and almost all existing plantations are located in tropical and rainy areas, offering excellent conditions for the production and use of biomass energy in large scale. Two Brazilian companies already utilize bamboo biomass in large scale in Brazil. The Penha Group, in Bahia, burns bamboo in boilers and uses the steam in the process for recycling paper. Joao Santos Group uses bamboo as raw material in the manufacture of pulp and paper. However in any case there is the use of this biomass for energy cogeneration, which is the most efficient technology for energy conversion. Therefore, this thesis analyses the use of bamboo as fuel for electricity cogeneration in Brazil considering the technical aspects, as well as the corresponding economic and environmental system deployment. Also, to study the development of the productive chain of bamboo in large scale in Brazil, specifically targeted for energy purposes, this paper presents the survey of data concerning the different production systems adopted by companies, both in the cultivation and processing of biomass. Based in these results it is analyzed an efficient cogeneration system using bamboo as fuel on large scale. Obtained results show that the power to be produced in an efficient cogeneration system (60 bar, 490 oC), from 17 tones of bamboo per hour, is 3,5 MW but, with the existing bamboo production models, there is no economic feasibility, as discussed in the paper. Regarding environmental aspects, it must be noted that the bamboo is as perennial plant, able to produce biomass annually without replanting, and so appears to be an excellent carbon sink.