Land-water-food nexus of biofuels: Discourse and policy debates in Brazil

Synthesis of European Union Biorefinery Supply Networks Considering Sustainability Objectives

“…It degrades during storage and requires extensive infrastructure for harvesting, transportation, storage, and processing [17]; • Biofuels have significant land [10] and water footprints [18], and they may also have negative impact on nitrogen [19], phosphorus [20], biodiversity [21], and even carbon [14] footprints. It could jeopardize the availability of arable lands, water, soil nutrients, and increase dependence on agrochemicals [22]; • Biofuel supply chains could generate significant amounts of waste and emissions to air, water, and soil [23]; • Second and third generations of biofuels are still at an early stage of development, and there are few commercial-scale productions and none for the third-generation biofuels in the world yet, although pilot and demonstration facilities are being developed [24]; • Advantages in biotechnology could increase biofuel production; however, its potential risks and benefits, and economic and environmental impacts, are still debated [25].…”

Variations in soil water replacement levels promote changes in forage cactus mineral composition and biomass productivity

“…Growing water scarcity can be defined as the imbalance between high demand due to population growth and economic development and low availability of water that can occur due to the effects of climate change (Santana et al, 2019;Benites-Lazaro et al, 2020). The Brazilian semiarid region undergoes constant changes in land use due to deforestation and high seasonality of water, represented among other variables by the decline in soil moisture content (Queiroz et al, 2020;Santos et al, 2020).…”

Classifying the Level of Energy-Environmental Efficiency Rating of Brazilian Ethanol

“…The total emission is compared with that of the equivalent fossil fuel (gasoline, for ethanol), resulting in a final score (Energy-Environmental Efficiency Rating), characterizing the mitigation of emissions. This note generates CBios for biofuel producers and importers; with the decarbonization of the Brazilian energy matrix, there is a mechanism for the commercialization of these CBios linked to the carbon intensity of biofuels [2,12,16,18].The incentive to reduce pollutant emissions in the biofuel chain goes far beyond the use of flex vehicles by consumers [9,11,22], but it is directly linked to decarbonization credits given to biofuel producers and distributors, because although renewable, it depends on how sugarcane is produced [5,8,[23][24][25][26]. Alkimim and Clarke [27] showed that the carbon debt of deforestation in Brazilian biomes for ethanol production was equivalent to 608 Mg CO 2 ha −1 in the Amazon, 142 Mg CO 2 ha −1 in the Cerrado, and 212 Mg CO 2 ha −1 to the Atlantic Forest with the respective return time of 62, 15, and 22 years.…”

“…Alkimim and Clarke [27] showed that the carbon debt of deforestation in Brazilian biomes for ethanol production was equivalent to 608 Mg CO 2 ha −1 in the Amazon, 142 Mg CO 2 ha −1 in the Cerrado, and 212 Mg CO 2 ha −1 to the Atlantic Forest with the respective return time of 62, 15, and 22 years. In this context, it is essential to integrate dissemination strategies, clear and comprehensive, on what is the level of energy-environmental efficiency of biofuel producers and distributors [22,28,29], in order to raise awareness and increase the number of certificates at RenovaBio, the membership of which is not mandatory.Predictive models are essential for the biofuel chain for both the consumer and the distributor as this classification of the level of efficiency can generate labels of their energy-environmental performance, increasing transparency and environmental responsibility concerning a product such as ethanol. The use of data mining to assess the performance of classifiers in the sugarcane sector is quite broad.…”

“…The incentive to reduce pollutant emissions in the biofuel chain goes far beyond the use of flex vehicles by consumers [9,11,22], but it is directly linked to decarbonization credits given to biofuel producers and distributors, because although renewable, it depends on how sugarcane is produced [5,8,[23][24][25][26]. Alkimim and Clarke [27] showed that the carbon debt of deforestation in Brazilian biomes for ethanol production was equivalent to 608 Mg CO 2 ha −1 in the Amazon, 142 Mg CO 2 ha −1 in the Cerrado, and 212 Mg CO 2 ha −1 to the Atlantic Forest with the respective return time of 62, 15, and 22 years.…”