2^nd World Bioenergy Congress and Expo

Modern bioenergy in the form of liquid biofuels, bioelectricity, biogas, and more efficient heat contributes to about 3.5% of the world’s energy matrix. Bioenergy production and use is expected to increase to about 20-25% by 2050 as part of a large global effort to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enable sustainable development. A wide-array of technological pathways using biomass as feedstock has been developed and is maturing with options to substitute petrochemical routes. Additionally, our growing knowledge of plants and microbes can also lead to new biobased chemicals. Bioenergy and biobased chemicals are part of a larger transition to a bioeconomy in which the biomass industry will have an increasingly important role and bioproducts will need to compete on the basis of efficiency and price. A global assessment of bioenergy sustainability recently conducted under the Aegis of SCOPE evaluated the potential expansion of bioenergy and its impacts and benefits. Led by researchers from FAPESP Bioenergy Program (BIOEN) with contributions from 137 experts in 24 countries, the study concluded that there is enough land for bioenergy expansion without competition for food or other needs, and that this expansion is most likely to take place in Latin America and Africa, contributing to social and economic development. Brazil, in its sugarcane ethanol program, has seen an astounding number of new technological developments in the context of sustainability. The speaker will consider environmental security, food security, energy security and improvement of livelihoods and discuss recent scientific findings on biotechnology for bioenergy expansion.