Invited Speakers

 

Alfred Szwarc Institution: Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) Presentation Title: Insights on Sustainability: Unica's Vision Presentation Summary: The sugarcane industry in Brazil is going through major changes regarding corporate sustainability. More and more companies are engaging in social and environmental projects and the results have been very positive. In 2008 Unica published the first sustainability report presenting the achievements of its associate members. This report, which follows the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines is the first of its kind in the world and demonstrates the indutry's commitment in achieving world-class standards Also because of international market demands Unica has been active in demonstrating to key international stakeholders the environmental sustainability of sugarcane, sugar, ethanol and bioelectricity production. The presentation will highlight these initiatives and refer to results achieved so far. E-mail: alfred@unica.com.br Institutional Web site: www.unica.com.br

André Elia Neto Institution: Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC) Presentation Title: Water sugarcane mills usage Presentation Summary: The impacts caused by the sugar-alcohol sector on aquatic environmental, or more specifically in the supply of water, are likely to degrade the water by intensive use causing shortage, by the high pollution potential of agro-industrial, or still by the use of land. These use and reuse of water will be presented in each stage of the process involved in the industrial production of sugar and ethanol and the progress it has already achieved in terms of saving water. It is noteworthy that the commercial competitiveness has been required regularity a review of processes and adoption of cleaner production, that which will optimize the use of natural resources, meanly water. E-mail: andre@ctccom.br Institutional Web site: www.ctc.com.br

 

Arnaldo Walter Institution: Bioethanol Science and Technology Center (CTBE)  Presentation Title: Sustainability of bioethanol: the vision of CTBE Presentation Summary: Sustainability of biofuels has been seen as an essential condition for trading and, theoretically, a producer/country with better environmental and socio indicators can take commercial advantages in this market. Brazil has many adequate conditions for large-scale production of ethanol and could enlarge its competitive advantages improving its sustainability indicators. On the other hand, sustainability of ethanol should be a target in itself for Brazilians, as the whole society must get benefits from this economic activity. The talk will focus on the CTBE's vision regarding sustainability of ethanol production from sugarcane and also on presenting the preliminary proposal of action in this topic, as a national laboratory. E-mail: awalter@fem.unicamp.br Institutional Web site: www.bioetanol.org.br

Artur Yabe Milanez Institution: Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) Presentation Title: BNDES and the sustainability of ethanol sector Presentation Summary: The presentation will be divided into three parts. The first one will focus on the criteria of sustainability used by BNDES to support projects for implementation or expansion of ethanol plants. The following part will present the main R & D projects, which relate to this industry, already approved by BNDES. The final section is devoted to presenting the other initiatives dedicated to increasing the sustainability of the ethanol sector in which the BNDES is currently involved. E-mail: milan@bndes.gov.br Institutional Web site: www.bndes.gov.br

Carlos Alberto Aragão de Carvalho Institution: Inmetro and Instituto de Física da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).  Presentation Title: Life Cycle Assessments for Bioethanol Presentation Summary: We present a critical appraisal of the requirements for assessing the impacts associated with the production and use of bioethanol as a fuel for transportation. We stress the importance of relying on local measurements, as well as the need for simple, user friendly, open and verifiable computational schemes. E-mail: aragao@if.ufrj.br Institutional Web site: www.inmetro.gov.br and www.if.ufrj.br

Carlos Cerri Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura / USP (CENA) Presentation Title: Soil Carbon Stock Change Presentation Summary: A política pública de proibição da queima e o desenvolvimento de máquinas colhedoras mais eficientes têm proporcionado o crescimento da cana colhida "crua", ou seja, sem queima, com manutenção da palhada no solo. Diversos estudos têm indicado a tendência de aumento do potencial de seqüestro de carbono no solo no sistema sem queima. Este aumento é condicionado por fatores como condições climáticas, textura do solo, tempo de implantação do sistema sem queima e manejo da adubação nitrogenada. Parte do carbono estocado por meio do manejo sem queima pode ser perdida durante a reforma do canavial (que geralmente ocorre a cada seis anos), quando o solo é preparado para o plantio do próximo. A capacidade do solo de armazenar carbono é finita, e a taxa de aumento de estoque tende a diminuir com o tempo de adoção do manejo de cana crua, tendendo a atingir um novo equilíbrio. No entanto, potencial de seqüestro de carbono do solo deve ser considerado em estudos mais amplos de balanço de gases do efeito estufa de produtos derivados da cana-de-açúcar. E-mail: cerri@cena.usp.br Institutional Web site: www.cena.usp.br

Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz Institution: São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Presentation Title: BIOEN: the FAPESP Research Program on Bioenergy. Presentation Summary: The FAPESP Program for Research on Bioenergy, BIOEN, aims at articulating public and private R&D, using academic and industrial laboratories to advance and apply knowledge in fields related to ethanol production in Brazil.  The BIOEN includes five Divisions: a) Sugarcane Plant Technologies, including plant improvement and Sugarcane Farming; b) Ethanol Industrial Technologies; c) Bio-refineries Technologies and alcohol chemistry; d) Ethanol applications for motor vehicles: Otto Cycle Engines and Fuel Cells; and e) Horizontal themes: Social and Economic Impacts, Environmental studies, Land Use, Intellectual Property. The BIOEN Program has a solid core for supporting academic exploratory research related to these topics. It is expected that these exploratory activities will generate new knowledge and form scientists and professionals essential for advancing industry capacity in ethanol related technologies. On top of this, the FAPESP Program for Research on Bioenergy establishes partnerships with industry for cooperative R&D activities between industrial laboratories and academic laboratories at universities and research institutes, which are to be co-funded by FAPESP and industry. E-mail: dc@fapesp.br Institutional Web site: http://bioenfapesp.org

Danton Bini Institution: Instituto de Economia Agrícola / Secretaria da Abricultura e Abastecimento-SP. Presentation Title: The Employment and Sugar and Alcohol Sector Presentation Summary: Interactions among the economic, environmental and social impacts of activities have led to structural changes in the production system of the sugar and alcohol sector. The major impact of these changes is the growing mechanization of the production process in the field. The higher intensity of harvest practices has led to a negative balance in job creation in the sector. Due to the profile of this labor force, a combination of action from the private and public sector is necessary to redirect these workers to the labor market. E-mail: danton@iea.sp.gov.br  Institutional Web site: www.iea.sp.gov.br

Eduardo Assad Institution: Embrapa Information Technology Presentation Title: Sugar Cane Agroecological zoning Presentation Summary: Agrocecologiacl zoning of sugar cane is an essential condition to identify a better environmental , socio indicators and agricultural areas to producer bioethanol in Brazil.  Brazil has many adequate areas  for large-scale production of ethanol  with good environmental conditions and competitive advantages improving its sustainability indicators.  The idea of this conference is  show the recent study from Agricultural Ministry, made by EMBRAPA, IBGE,INPE,CPRM and UNICAMP and answer the question , where it’s possible identify in all country the best areas to produce sugar cane without improve the production in Amazon, Pantanal and Upper Paraguai regions. E-mail: assad@cnptia.embrapa.br Institutional Web site: www.cnptia.embrapa.br

Isaias de Carvalho Macedo Institution: Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Planejamento Energético (NIPE) da Univesidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Presentation Title: Evaluation of GHG  emissions / mitigation in ethanol production / utilization. Presentation Summary: Methodology “harmonization” has been sought (system boundaries, by-products allocation, land use change impacts, N2O emissions, baselines) in the last years (GBEP, RSB, RTFO, etc). There is consensus on the carbon fluxes and GHG to be accounted for in the “conventional” LCA, but better data is needed in some areas. For the LUC direct effects, IPCC methodology and default values for C stocks are the most accepted. The ILUC effect still lacks adequate models and realistic (and sufficient) drivers; the next two years may bring some solutions. Much larger data bases (actual production systems); adequate model simplifications and transparency are essential for reaching reliable, comparable results. E-mail: andrade.lili@terra.com.br Institutional Web site: www.nipeunicamp.org.br

 

Jorge Luis Donzelli Institution: Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC) Presentation Title: Sugarcane in Brazil – Production, Research, Development and Sustainability Presentation Summary: The research and development conducted for the sugarcane agricultural research organizations had brought to the sector technologies that have enabled greater sustainability to the farming areas. Technologies, such as sugarcane harvesting without burning, the use of improved varieties and its recommendation in accordance with the environments of production enabled the increased productivity while reducing the use of inputs and have saved new land for planting areas. E-mail: donzelli@ctc.com.br Institutional Web site: www.ctc.com.br

Laura Barcellos Antoniazzi Institution: Institute for International Trade Negotiations (ICONE) Presentation Title: The Brazilian Land Use Model and its applications for ethanol impacts Presentation Summary: The Brazilian Land Use Model (BLUM) is a partial equilibrium model developed by ICONE in a joint effort with FAPRI (Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute). Using national supply and demand for the eleven most important agricultural products, the model predicts their land allocation for six macro regions over a ten year period. These regions are relatively homogeneous in terms of agricultural production patterns and biomes . BLUM is capable of projecting ethanol exports and domestic demand endogenously, but can also work with exogenous scenarios, such as different countries' mandates. Therefore, the model can analyze the impact of land use change caused by these scenarios, which in turn can be converted to GHG emissions. E-mail: lantoniazzi@iconebrasil.org.br Institutional Web site: www.iconebrasil.org.br

Marcelo Poppe Institution: Center for Strategic Management and Studies in Science, Technology and Innovation (CGEE) Presentation Title: Global opportunities for sustainable bioethanol Presentation Summary: Three quarters of the world's energy supply come from fossil fuels, responsible for large local pollution loads and for most of the greenhouse gases emissions. The scale on which they are being used will quickly lead to their depletion. The world energy consumption should grow as a result of the progress of many of the world’s developing regions. Industrial countries have not succeeded in reducing energy use without compromising the quality of life, even though it is known that this can and must be done. The challenge, therefore, is to seek renewable energy sources and to increase efficiencies in energy production and use on an unprecedented scale. The sugarcane bioethanol and the bioelectricity from trash can contribute as energy for sustainable development. E-mail: mpoppe@cgee.org.br Institutional Web site: www.cgee.org.br

Marcia Azanha Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de São Paulo Presentation Title: Paradox: mechanization and social inclusion Presentation Summary: The growth of the sugarcane, sugar and ethanol industry since the Proalcool Program was created, had a positive impact on jobs in these three sectors. According to data from PNAD, there were about 528,000 workers in sugarcane plantations. However there was a decrease of 15.52% between 1981 and 2007, probably as a result of mechanization of sugarcane harvesting in the state of Sao Paulo. For the most of the agricultural workers to be employed in mechanical harvesting activities, they need more schooling years than most of them have. The challenge is how to conciliate the growth of sugarcane harvesting mechanization and the social inclusion of low schooling workers. E-mail: mafdmora@esalq.usp.br Institutional Web site: www.esalq.usp.br/gemt

Oswaldo Lucon Institution: São Paulo State Environment Secretariat (SMA) Presentation Title: Biofuel certification - The Green Ethanol Program Presentation Summary: The Green Ethanol Program (established in 2007) is a joint initiative made by the São Paulo (Brazil) State Government (through the Environment and the Agriculture Secretariats) and the sugarcane sector (represented by UNICA, the producers union). A voluntary protocol covers some of the main topics regarding environmental and social sustainability (crop burning phaseout, restoration and protection of ecosystems, reduced water usage, erosion and air emissions, labor practices). In 2008, São Paulo produced 59% of the Brazilian total ethanol output and in the State 155 out of 188 plants have adhered to the scheme - a benchmark for bioenergy certification. E-mail: oswaldol@cetesbnet.sp.gov.br; olucon@sp.gov.br Institutional Web site: www.ambiente.sp.gov.br

Robert Michael Boddey Institution: Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Presentation Title: Sustainability of the sugarcane/bioethanol production cycle: a strategic priority at Embrapa. Presentation Summary: The generation and introduction of reliable technologies into the Brazilian agriculture, which enable innovative technological solutions for the sustainable development of the agro-energy business in Brazil for the benefit of society, is a mandatory objective of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Some of Embrapa’s strategies to improve the performance of sugarcane/bioethanol production cycle are presented, including the development of sustainable production systems, agro-ecological zoning and modeling tools, improving first and second generation conversion technologies, exploring new enzymes for the biofuel industry, drought resistant sugarcane varieties, increasing cane sugar content, biological nitrogen fixation and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. E-mail: bob@cnpab.embrapa.br Institutional Web site: www.embrapa.br