Currently, transport is highly dependent on fossil fuels and responsible for about 23% of world energy-related GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. Ethanol from sugar cane and corn emerges as an alternative for gasoline in order to mitigate GHG emissions. Additionally, deeper offshore drilling projects such as in the Brazilian Pre-Salt reservoirs and mining projects of nonconventional sources like Tar Sands in Canada could be a solution for supplying demand of fossil fuels in the short and midterm. Based on updated literature, this paper presents an assessment of GHG emissions for four different fuels: ethanol from sugar cane and from corn and gasoline from conventional crude oil and from tar sands. An Ecological Footprint analysis is also presented, which shows that ethanol from sugar cane has the lowest GHG emissions and requires the lowest biocapacity per unit of energy produced among these fuels. Finally, an analysis using the Embodied Water concept is made with the introduction of a new concept, the "CO(2)-Water", to illustrate the impacts of releasing carbon from underground to atmosphere and of the water needed to sequestrate it over the life cycle of the assessed fuels. Using this method resulted that gasoline from fossil fuels would indirectly "require" on average as much water as ethanol from sugar cane per unit of fuel energy produced.
Natural gas plays an important role in the Southern cone energy system, and is expected to increase in primary supply in the future. This paper presents a new energy systems model for the Southern Cone region of Latin America, covering five regions (Argentina, Bolivia, South and Centre Chile, North Chile, and Brazil) with the aim to explore, up to 2030, the interplay between (i) the expected consumption of natural gas for electricity generation and end-use consumption (i.e. residential, commercial, transport and industry) in each country, (ii) the inter- and intra-country potential role as producer and consumer of natural gas, and (iii) the possible supply network of LNG and natural gas via pipeline and domestic production. It is found that, under a Constrained Investment Scenario, the gross domestic gas production of the Southern Cone from 2012 to 2030 could be 62 Tcf, whereas under an Unconstrained Scenario, it could rise to 75 Tcf. This highlights the economic potential of the unconventional gas resources of Argentina and projections of associated gas from the Campos and Santos basins in Brazil. However, accessing these resources poses financial challenges. Nonetheless, results clearly indicate significant potential for an increase in regional natural gas trade in the Southern Cone
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