Large-scale Bioenergy Research Articles

Blue in green: forestation turns blue water green, mitigating heat at the expense of water availability

Abstract In order to meet a stringent carbon budget, shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) aligned with the Paris Agreement typically require substantial land-use changes (LUC), such as large-scale forestation and bioenergy crop plantations. What if such a low-emission, intense-LUC scenario actually materialized? This paper quantifies the biophysical effects of LUC under SSP1-2.6 using an ensemble of regional climate simulations over Europe. We find that LUC projected over the 21st century, primarily broadleaf-tree forestation at the expense of grasslands, reduce summertime heat extremes significantly over large swaths of continental Europe. In fact, cooling from LUC trumps warming by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, resulting in milder heat extremes by 2100 for about half of the European population. Forestation brings heat relief by shifting the partition of turbulent energy fluxes away from sensible and towards latent heat fluxes. Impacts on the water cycle are then assessed. Forestation enhances precipitation recycling over continental Europe, but not enough to match the boost of evapotranspiration (green water flux). Run-off (blue water flux) is reduced as a consequence. Some regions experience severe drying in response. In other words, forestation turns blue water green, bringing heat relief but compromising water availability in some already-dry regions.

Development Pathways and the Political Economy of Maladaptation: The Case of Bioenergy as a Climate Strategy in Brazil

AbstractAlthough it is well known that large-scale bioenergy expansion erodes different environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable development, in countries like Brazil, bioenergy is institutionalized as a flagship climate strategy aimed to cut down CO2 emissions in transport. These trade-offs have serious implications for climate change governance and sustainable development; however, conventional approaches have not yet properly explained this seeming paradox. This article addresses this gap from a critical development pathways approach to bioenergy as a maladaptive strategy in Brazil. I propose an analytical framework to observe how different ideas, interests, and institutions interplay in the historical institutionalization of bioenergy as a climate strategy. The analysis shows that bioenergy institutionalization has been driven by the endemic economic crisis in the sugar sector and governmental interests associated with security and developmental imperatives. The unsustainable co-evolution of development pathways and bioenergy, marked by deforestation, land colonization, and agricultural expansion, has narrowed the adaptation space in agriculture, gearing current climate policy towards path-dependent maladaptive strategies like bioenergy. Paradoxically, framing bioenergy as a climate strategy has been useful to justify more expansive policies in favor of the sugarcane industry, and to greenwash the Brazilian climate policy in the international arena of climate governance.

Bioenergy in Europe is unlikely to make a timely contribution to climate change targets

Increasing bioenergy production is a significant component of European efforts to mitigate climate change, but has contested potential for reducing emissions. We use an integrated land system model to explore the effects of large-scale bioenergy production within the European Union on carbon balances. We find that increased bioenergy crop production is likely to cause substantial deforestation and a commensurate loss of associated carbon stocks largely due to displacement of food production from other areas. Deforestation would occur either within the EU if European forests were not protected, or in other parts of the world arising from indirect land use change if European forests were protected. The net carbon benefit of bioenergy production is largely negative, or uncertain, even under the most optimistic levels of fossil fuel replacement, and will not offset initial carbon losses over the coming 50 yr. The growth of intensive agriculture required to satisfy the demand for bioenergy and food will have negative impacts on crucial ecosystem services. Overall, we identify substantial disadvantages to increasing bioenergy production relative to freeing land for natural succession. At best, large-scale bioenergy production is likely to be irrelevant to time-sensitive climate targets.

Assessment of feasible site locations for biofuel production based on technoeconomic modelling and GHG impact analysis

Large scale bioenergy is expected to play an increasing role in the industry, heat and power production and transportation in the future. Both biomass availability and cost-effective mobilization are necessary to facilitate large bioenergy production sites. This study uses a Geographical Information System approach to map the economic and environmental feasibility of future biofuel production sites via Hydrothermal Liquefaction. The methodology includes process modelling, biomass and infrastructure mapping, technoeconomic analysis and greenhouse gas impact assessment and is implemented having Denmark as case study. Three supply-chains were evaluated for the upgrading of the biofuel which are chemical stabilizing, on-site hydrotreating, and centralised hydrotreating. The two feedstocks assessed were imported forestry and domestic agricultural residue resulting in a total of six different implementation scenarios. The results for the case study indicate that for forestry residue the proximity to an industrial port is the most dominating factor when determining feasible site locations. The performance in the agricultural residue scenarios is more impacted by infrastructure parameters. In the on-site hydrotreating scenario the best performing locations are found close to the hydrogen line to reduce connection expenses. For centralised hydrotreating the results favour being close to existing refineries to reduce intermediate transportation of the biocrude.

Increased precipitation over land due to climate feedback of large-scale bioenergy cultivation

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is considered to be a key technology for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, large-scale bioenergy crop cultivation results in land cover changes and activates biophysical effects on climate, with earth’s water recycling altered and energy budget re-adjusted. Here, we use a coupled atmosphere-land model with explicit representations of high-transpiration woody (i.e., eucalypt) and low-transpiration herbaceous (i.e., switchgrass) bioenergy crops to investigate the range of impact of large-scale rainfed bioenergy crop cultivation on the global water cycle and atmospheric water recycling. We find that global land precipitation increases under BECCS scenarios, due to enhanced evapotranspiration and inland moisture advection. Despite enhanced evapotranspiration, soil moisture decreases only slightly, due to increased precipitation and reduced runoff. Our results indicate that, at the global scale, the water consumption by bioenergy crop growth would be partially compensated by atmospheric feedbacks. Thus, to support more effective climate mitigation policies, a more comprehensive assessment, including the biophysical effects of bioenergy cultivation, is highly recommended.

Temperature Changes Induced by Biogeochemical and Biophysical Effects of Bioenergy Crop Cultivation.

The production of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a pivotal negative emission technology. The cultivation of dedicated crops for BECCS impacts the temperature through two processes: net CO2 removal (CDR) from the atmosphere (biogeochemical cooling) and changes in the local energy balance (biophysical warming or cooling). Here, we compare the magnitude of these two processes for key grass and tree species envisioned for large-scale bioenergy crop cultivation, following economically plausible scenarios using Earth System Models. By the end of this century, the cumulative CDR from the cultivation of eucalypt (72-112 Pg C) is larger than that of switchgrass (34-83 Pg C) because of contrasting contributions of land use change carbon emissions. The combined biogeochemical and biophysical effects are cooling (-0.26 to -0.04 °C) at the global scale, but 13-28% of land areas still have net warming signals, mainly due to the spatial heterogeneity of the biophysical effects. Our study shows that the deployment of bioenergy crop cultivation should not only be guided by the principles of maximizing yield and CDR but should also take an integrated perspective that includes all relevant Earth system feedbacks.

“Bigger than government”: Exploring the social construction and contestation of net-zero industrial megaprojects in England

Industry is frequently framed as hard-to-decarbonize given its diversity of requirements, technologies, and supply chains, many of which are unique to particular sectors. Net zero commitments since 2019 have begun to challenge the carbon intensity of these various industries, but progress has been slow globally. Against this backdrop, the United Kingdom has emerged as a leader in industrial decarbonization efforts. Their approach is based on industrial clusters, which cut across engineering, spatial, and socio-political dimensions. Two of the largest of these clusters in England in terms of industrial emissions are the Humber and Merseyside. In this paper, drawn from a rich mixed methods original dataset involving expert interviews (N = 46 respondents), site visits (N = 20), a review of project documents and the academic literature, we explore ongoing efforts to decarbonize both the Humber and Merseyside through the lens of spatially expansive and technically complex megaprojects. Both have aggressive implementation plans in place for the deployment of net-zero infrastructure, with Zero Carbon Humber seeking billions in investment to build the country's first large-scale bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plant alongside a carbon transport network and hydrogen production infrastructure, and HyNet seeking billions in investment to build green and blue hydrogen facilities along with a carbon storage network near Manchester and Liverpool. We draw from the social construction of technology (SCOT) literature to examine the relevant social groups, interpretive flexibility, and patterns of closure associated with Zero Carbon Humber and HyNet. We connect our findings to eight interpretive frames surrounding the collective projects, and make connections to problems, contestation, and closure.

Перспективні енергетичні культури на осушуваних торфовищах Лісостепу та їх водоспоживання в умовах зміни клімату

Goal. To determine the productivity of energy plantations, to investigate the parameters of water consumption of the main bioenergy crops on the drained organogenic soils of the Forest Steppe of Ukraine in modern conditions of climate change. Methods. Experimental on the basis of lysimeter studies and comparative-analytical, carried out on experimental sites of reclamation systems, mathematical modeling and processing of experimental data. The results. It was found that the maximum water consumption characteristic of the tristem willow in August is 8.02 thousand m3/ha, and this fact confirms the significant drying effect of tree crops. The lowest water consumption during the period of active vegetation was recorded in giant miscanthus — 2.53 thousand m3/ha. The total water consumption of Jerusalem artichoke from May to October was 18,100 m3/ha, corn — 12, sorghum — 10,800 m3/ha. It was found that lowering the groundwater level from 80 to 100 cm had little effect on the water consumption of Jerusalem artichoke, willow and miscanthus. The difference for these cultures does not exceed 1–3%. However, corn water consumption decreased by 112 L/kg dry matter, or 17%, and sorghum water consumption decreased by 205 L/kg, or 30% overall. In case of creation of large-scale bioenergy plantations, the area of which is measured in hundreds of hectares, it is necessary to modernize and repair the drying and humidification system. Conclusions. Climatic changes had a positive effect on the productivity of corn and sweet sorghum, the yield of dry biomass of which increased by 0.8 and 3.4 t/ha on average over three years, respectively, and negatively on the productivity of willow, it fell by 1.4 t/ha ; the productivity of miscanthus and Jerusalem artichoke did not change significantly. Therefore, when growing large plantations of energy crops, it is necessary to take into account the water regime of the land used: in fields with limited water resources, grow such annual crops as sorghum and corn, on lands with sufficient moisture — miscanthus, Jerusalem artichoke, in overmoistened places — willow plantations.

Linking bioenergy production by agricultural residues to sustainable development goals: Prospects by 2030 in China

Large-scale bioenergy production utilizing agricultural residues (ARs) in multi-paths has potential energy, environmental, economic and social (EEES) impacts. If, how and to what extent these impacts integratively bring sustainability contributions at regional scale remains to be explored. Herein, the EEES impacts quantified based upon a multi-resource-technology-output life cycle framework are reflected as 17 indicators, and linked to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their sub-goals to explore the sustainability contributions and trade-offs in 31 Chinese provincial regions by 2030 in three scenarios of ARs availability. Results indicate that the ARs can contribute to 1.86 billion GJ net energy output and 32.1 billion yuan net profit by 2030 in the complete scenario with the highest ARs availability. Attributed to open burning avoidance and fossil energy offset, there are mitigation effects on 11 out of 13 life cycle environmental impact categories, however intensification effects on Freshwater eutrophication and Marine eutrophication. Regional sustainability score closely depends on ARs availability, while does not strictly parallel it. The ARs-abundant regions, such as Heilongjiang, Henan and Jilin, benefit outstandingly from bioenergy production to enhance regional sustainability (especially on SDG1, SDG7 and SDG13). The findings can provide decision-makers with references to soundly boosting agricultural bioenergy development to consolidate regional sustainability.

Quantifying the impacts of land cover change on gross primary productivity globally

Historically, humans have cleared many forests for agriculture. While this substantially reduced ecosystem carbon storage, the impacts of these land cover changes on terrestrial gross primary productivity (GPP) have not been adequately resolved yet. Here, we combine high-resolution datasets of satellite-derived GPP and environmental predictor variables to estimate the potential GPP of forests, grasslands, and croplands around the globe. With a mean GPP of 2.0 kg C m−2 yr−1 forests represent the most productive land cover on two thirds of the total area suitable for any of these land cover types, while grasslands and croplands on average reach 1.5 and 1.8 kg C m−2 yr−1, respectively. Combining our potential GPP maps with a historical land-use reconstruction indicates a 4.4% reduction in global GPP from agricultural expansion. This land-use-induced GPP reduction is amplified in some future scenarios as a result of ongoing deforestation (e.g., the large-scale bioenergy scenario SSP4-3.4) but partly reversed in other scenarios (e.g., the sustainability scenario SSP1-1.9) due to agricultural abandonment. Comparing our results to simulations from state-of-the-art Earth System Models, we find that all investigated models deviate substantially from our estimates and from each other. Our maps could be used as a benchmark to reduce this inconsistency, thereby improving projections of land-based climate mitigation potentials.

Delayed use of bioenergy crops might threaten climate and food security.

The potential of mitigation actions to limit global warming within 2 °C (ref. 1) might rely on the abundant supply of biomass for large-scale bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) that is assumed to scale up markedly in the future2-5. However, the detrimental effects of climate change on crop yields may reduce the capacity of BECCS and threaten food security6-8, thus creating an unrecognized positive feedback loop on global warming. We quantified the strength of this feedback by implementing the responses of crop yields to increases in growing-season temperature, atmospheric CO2 concentration and intensity of nitrogen (N) fertilization in a compact Earth system model9. Exceeding a threshold of climate change would cause transformative changes in social-ecological systems by jeopardizing climate stability and threatening food security. If global mitigation alongside large-scale BECCS is delayed to 2060 when global warming exceeds about 2.5 °C, then the yields of agricultural residues for BECCS would be too low to meet the Paris goal of 2 °C by 2200. This risk of failure is amplified by the sustained demand for food, leading to an expansion of cropland or intensification of N fertilization to compensate for climate-induced yield losses. Our findings thereby reinforce the urgency of early mitigation, preferably by 2040, to avoid irreversible climate change and serious food crises unless other negative-emission technologies become available in the near future to compensate for the reduced capacity of BECCS.

Future bioenergy expansion could alter carbon sequestration potential and exacerbate water stress in the United States.

The maximum future projected bioenergy expansion potential, in scenarios limiting warming to 2°C or below, is equivalent to half of present-day croplands. We quantify the impacts of large-scale bioenergy expansion against re/afforestation, which remain elusive, using an integrated human-natural system modeling framework with explicit representation of perennial bioenergy crops. The end-of-century net carbon sequestration due to bioenergy deployment coupled with carbon capture and storage largely depends on fossil fuel displacement types, ranging from 11.4 to 31.2 PgC over the conterminous United States. These net carbon sequestration benefits are inclusive of a 10 PgC carbon release due to land use conversions and a 2.4 PgC loss of additional carbon sink capacity associated with bioenergy-driven deforestation. Moreover, nearly one-fourth of U.S. land areas will suffer severe water stress by 2100 due to either reduced availability or deteriorated quality. These broader impacts of bioenergy expansion should be weighed against the costs and benefits of re/afforestation-based strategies.

Mapping the sustainability of bioenergy to maximise benefits, mitigate risks and drive progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals

Demand for biomass resources will continue to grow as bioenergy is increasingly targeted within energy strategies. Sustainability is a primary issue for large scale bioenergy, with potential to generate both risks and benefits for people, development, natural systems and for climate change – this balance of risks and benefits determining overall sustainability performance. A new sustainability mapping framework is introduced that provides a flexible tool (BSIM) to map the performances of biomass resources, supply chains, technologies and/or whole value chains against 126 indicators of sustainability. Sustainability maps are developed and assessments undertaken for case studies in the UK and Colombia. This research finds sustainability of bioenergy covers far more issues than those targeted within legislation – where land, carbon and biodiversity are prioritised. Mapping sustainability is a valuable tool to identify the leading risks and benefits to enable targeted actions to mitigate risks and to maximise and promote benefits. Mapping sustainability at different resolutions and analysing the trade-offs enables greater rationalisation of potential risks through also identifying the potential broader benefits gained. Bioenergy is intrinsically linked to the SDGs more so than other renewable technologies and should be used as a mechanism to drive sustainable development.

Mineral carbonation of thermally treated and weathered biomass ashes with respect to their CO2 capture and storage

Five long-term stored biomass ashes (BAs) from beech wood chips, corn cobs, sunflower shells, plum pits, and walnut shells produced at 500 °C were thermally treated at 900 °C and subsequently weathered to evaluate their CO2 capture and storage (CCS) potential by mineral carbonation. A combination of different mineralogical, chemical and thermal analyses was used for that purpose. The BAs studied are highly enriched in alkaline-earth and alkaline oxides (52–91%) and they belong to diverse chemical ash types. The minerals responsible for CCS of these BAs include Ca, K, K-Ca and Ca-Mg carbonates and bicarbonates such as calcite, fairchildite, kalicinite, dolomite, and butschliite. The formation of these minerals is a result of interactions between alkaline-earth and alkaline oxyhydroxides in BA and flue CO2 gas during residual char combustion and especially atmospheric CO2 during BA storage and weathering. It was found that the BAs studied show significant CCS capacity, namely about 19–33% (mean 27%). It was emphasized that the renewable and carbon-neutral biomass also has some extra CCS potential due to the sequestration of atmospheric CO2 during BA storage and weathering. Therefore, the future large-scale bioenergy production in a sustainable way can contribute greatly for decreasing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and can reduce the use of costly CCS technologies.

Global cooling induced by biophysical effects of bioenergy crop cultivation

Bioenergy crop with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a key negative emission technology to meet carbon neutrality. However, the biophysical effects of widespread bioenergy crop cultivation on temperature remain unclear. Here, using a coupled atmosphere-land model with an explicit representation of lignocellulosic bioenergy crops, we find that after 50 years of large-scale bioenergy crop cultivation following plausible scenarios, global air temperature decreases by 0.03~0.08 °C, with strong regional contrasts and interannual variability. Over the cultivated regions, woody crops induce stronger cooling effects than herbaceous crops due to larger evapotranspiration rates and smaller aerodynamic resistance. At the continental scale, air temperature changes are not linearly proportional to the cultivation area. Sensitivity tests show that the temperature change is robust for eucalypt but more uncertain for switchgrass among different cultivation maps. Our study calls for new metrics to take the biophysical effects into account when assessing the climate mitigation capacity of BECCS.

Albedo-induced global warming impact of Conservation Reserve Program grasslands converted to annual and perennial bioenergy crops

Climate benefit assessments of bioenergy crops often focus on biogeochemical impacts, paying little if any attention to biogeophysical impacts. However, land conversions required for large-scale bioenergy crop production are substantial and may directly affect the climate by altering surface energy balance. In the US, such land conversions are likely to be met in part by converting Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grassland to bioenergy crops. Here, we converted three 22 year old CRP smooth brome grass fields into no-till corn, switchgrass, or restored prairie bioenergy crops. We assessed the biogeophysical climate impact of the conversions using albedo changes relative to unconverted reference CRP grassland. The corn and perennial fields had higher annual albedo than the grassland they replaced—causing cooling of the local climate. The cooling of the corn field occurred solely during the non-growing season—especially when surfaces were snow-covered, whereas the cooling of the perennial fields was more prominent during the growing season. Compared to biogeochemical impacts with fossil fuel offsets for the same land conversions over eight years, the annual albedo-induced climate benefits add ∼35% and ∼78% to the annual biogeochemical benefits provided from the switchgrass and restored prairie fields, respectively, and offset ∼3.3% of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the corn field. We conclude that albedo-induced climate mitigation from conversion of CRP lands to perennial but not annual bioenergy crops can be substantial, and future climate impact assessments of bioenergy crops should include albedo changes in addition to GHG balances in order to better inform climate policies.

Wheat straw: A natural remedy against different maladies.

In millennia, much attention has been paid toward agro‐industrial waste which consists of lignin and cellulosic biomass. In this perspective, biomass waste which consists of lignocellulosic mass is an inexpensive, renewable, abundant that provides a unique natural resource for large‐scale and cost‐effective bioenergy collection. In this current scenario, efforts are directed to briefly review the agro‐industrial lignocellulosic biomass as a broad spectrum of numerous functional ingredients, its utilization, and respective health benefits with special to wheat straw. Wheat straw is lignocellulosic mass owing to the presence of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Its microbial culture is the most important and well adjusted, for a variety of applications in the fermentation substrate, feed, food, medicine, industry, and agriculture in order to increase soil fertility. In industrial fermentation, wheat straw can be used as substrates for the production of a wide range of hydrolytic enzymes, drugs, metabolites, and other biofuels as a low‐cost substrate or a natural source. Conclusively, wheat straw is the best source to produce bioethanol, biogas, and biohydrogen in biorefineries because it is a renewable, widely distributed, and easily available with very low cost, and its consumption is protected and environment friendly. Wheat straw is a moiety which has health benefits including anti‐inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti‐artherogenic, anti‐allergenic, antioxidant, antithrombotic, etc.

An overview of the Energy Modeling Forum 33rd study: assessing large-scale global bioenergy deployment for managing climate change

Previous studies have projected a significant role for bioenergy in decarbonizing the global economy and helping realize international climate goals such as limiting global average warming to 2 ˚C or 1.5 ˚C. However, with substantial variability in bioenergy results and significant concerns about potential environmental and social implications, greater transparency and dedicated assessment of the underlying modeling and results and more detailed understanding of the potential role of bioenergy are needed. Stanford University’s Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) initiated a 33rd study (EMF-33) to explore the viability of large-scale bioenergy as part of a comprehensive climate management strategy. This special issue presents the papers of the EMF-33 study—a multi-year inter-model comparison project designed to understand and assess global, long-run biomass supply and bioenergy deployment potentials and related uncertainties. Using a novel scenario design with independent biomass supply and bioenergy demand protocols, EMF-33 separately elucidates and explores the modeling of biomass feedstock supplies and bioenergy technologies and their deployment—revealing, comparing, and assessing the modeling that is suggesting that bioenergy could be a key climate containment strategy. This introduction provides an overview of the EMF-33 study design and the overview, thematic, and individual modeling team papers and types of insights that make up this special issue. By providing enhanced transparency and new detailed insights, we hope to inform policy dialogue about the potential role of bioenergy and facilitate new research.

Bio-energy and CO2 emission reductions: an integrated land-use and energy sector perspective

Biomass feedstocks can be used to substitute fossil fuels and effectively remove carbon from the atmosphere to offset residual CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and other sectors. Both features make biomass valuable for climate change mitigation; therefore, CO2 emission mitigation leads to complex and dynamic interactions between the energy and the land-use sector via emission pricing policies and bioenergy markets. Projected bioenergy deployment depends on climate target stringency as well as assumptions about context variables such as technology development, energy and land markets as well as policies. This study investigates the intra- and intersectorial effects on physical quantities and prices by coupling models of the energy (REMIND) and land-use sector (MAgPIE) using an iterative soft-link approach. The model framework is used to investigate variations of a broad set of context variables, including the harmonized variations on bioenergy technologies of the 33rd model comparison study of the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum (EMF-33) on climate change mitigation and large scale bioenergy deployment. Results indicate that CO2 emission mitigation triggers strong decline of fossil fuel use and rapid growth of bioenergy deployment around midcentury (~ 150 EJ/year) reaching saturation towards end-of-century. Varying context variables leads to diverse changes on mid-century bioenergy markets and carbon pricing. For example, reducing the ability to exploit the carbon value of bioenergy increases bioenergy use to substitute fossil fuels, whereas limitations on bioenergy supply shift bioenergy use to conversion alternatives featuring higher carbon capture rates. Radical variations, like fully excluding all technologies that combine bioenergy use with carbon removal, lead to substantial intersectorial effects by increasing bioenergy demand and increased economic pressure on both sectors. More gradual variations like selective exclusion of advanced bioliquid technologies in the energy sector or changes in diets mostly lead to substantial intrasectorial reallocation effects. The results deepen our understanding of the land-energy nexus, and we discuss the importance of carefully choosing variations in sensitivity analyses to provide a balanced assessment.

Assessment of Natural and Post-Extraction Biomass from Acrocomia totai leaves: a Renewable Source of Energy

The search for cleaner production technologies and sustainable development tools has prompted increasing interest in the use of new, renewable raw materials for biorefineries and energy production. Thus, biodiesel production from the pulp oil (fruit oil) of Acrocomia totai Mart., a species of palm tree, is currently being investigated. However, the bioenergy potential of biomass from different parts of this species is still unknown, and may not be limited to oil from the pulp. Therefore, the aim of this work was to evaluate the leaves of A. totai as a secondary source of lipids and energy. Deciduous and fresh leaves were submitted to the Soxhlet and Bligh & Dyer extractions, and the presence of 1.0 to 5.8% of unsaturated fatty acids was observed by GC-FID analyses. The crude extract (CE) of the leaves was obtained by exhaustive extraction with methanol and then partitioned with different solvents. CE and its fractions were characterized by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and the thermal properties were determined. The average specific heat of the grease fractions was 2.0 J g−1 K−1 and the calorific value of the polar and non-polar fractions varied from 15.7 to 34.1 MJ kg−1. For the whole leaves, the calorific value of the deciduous leaves was higher than that of the fresh leaves due to their lower water content, as determined by thermogravimetric-differential thermal analyses (TG-DTA) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The residual pies from the Soxhlet extractions of the deciduous and fresh leaves were characterized by TGA-DTA and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), revealing a lignocellulosic fibrous material with calorific values of 14.2 MJ kg−1 and 9.3 MJ kg−1, respectively, and an average specific heat of 1.6 J g−1 K−1. These thermal properties are comparable to those of sugarcane bagasse, a widely used type of biomass for industrial large-scale bioenergy production in Brazil. Therefore, these results indicated that it may be possible to harvest the deciduous leaves, a residue from the “macauba” cultivation, for energy cogeneration in biodiesel refineries.