Charcoal production in Brazil and green steel

Dilcio by José Rocha - Embrapa Agroenergia

Brazil is expected to consistently develop the technical and managerial capacity to improve and expand the supply of green steel, high quality product and great advantages in the conservation of native biodiversity and mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG).

GHG emissions are usually related to deforestation and burning of fossil fuels in vehicle engines, in industrial furnaces and power plants for the generation of electricity. In addition to these important issues steel production, the raw material for the construction of engines and machinery, is essentially made from coal coke, which is also a fossil fuel.

Coal is the most polluting fuel that mankind uses in terms of emissions of greenhouse gases, surpassing oil and natural gas, the other two types of fossil fuels. In the steel industry coal is used in the form of coke, carbon source to react with the iron ore (reducer), and producing alloy steel which we call. The steel industry is a basic essential in the development of society.

Alternatively the coking coal in steel production, can be used charcoal. Charcoal can be considered a renewable coke.

The Brazilian energy matrix is ​​recognized as the world's cleanest. Here, nearly half of the primary energy consumption is from renewable sources: just 47.6%, according to the 2010 National Energy Balance (BEN 2010 https://ben.epe.gov.br). This total hydraulic and electric correspond to 15.3%, 10.1% firewood and charcoal and 18.1% of the product cane sugar. The remaining 3.8% come from other sources such as wind and solar.

By analyzing the time series of the National Energy Balance (https://ben.epe.gov.br), it is clear that before the Second World War, in 1940, Brazil was a country essentially moved the wood. Over 80% of primary energy consumption in the country at that time was met with firewood.

Much if not all of the wood used was of native origin. From there to the present day, the growth rate of firewood and charcoal was much lower than the growth rate of the products of cane sugar. Sugarcane products had the same force growth oil and hydropower. Firewood and charcoal not. The gradual growth of the cane shows the clear effect of aggregation technology, evolving from mill to the current distilleries. Firewood continues with its traditional kilns producing charcoal, which in 2010 had a production of 10 million tons.

The global energy supply in Brazil has grown almost 10 times in 70 years, from 1940 to 2010. The supply of firewood and charcoal has more than doubled, increased 1.2 times, but the supply of sugarcane products grew almost 78 times. The supply of oil, gas and derivatives grew 60 times. The supply of hydraulic and electricity grew 106 times. This effectively means that firewood and charcoal had a brutal downturn on over the years. However, unlike the situation in 1940, the wood used for the production of charcoal is obtained as much native vegetation as planted forests, mainly eucalyptus.

The final product of charcoal obtained from wood from planted forests is the "green steel" a Brazilian product with unique features in the world, can help in mitigating the emission of greenhouse gas advantageously. The steel charcoal in Brazil is largely concentrated in the state of Minas Gerais, with half of the sector and in the Carajás region, which encompasses Pará and Maranhão. Mato Grosso do Sul is a new frontier and could be an appropriate field for innovation in the sector, but not the only one.

The steel can be a green flag with sustainable environmental bias and that Brazil will lead the global forums. This is feasible because the chain of production of charcoal is linked environmental demands, social and economic. Thus, we necessarily introduce new processes, new technologies and new applications for firewood and charcoal in Brazil.

The path should be with appropriate public policies and partnership-type public-private. We have, necessarily, that increase the sustainability and renewability in the production of firewood and charcoal to control the origin of the raw material and its full use, for example, making the recovery of tar and bio-oil. We, being the country most interested in the success of supply chain charcoal, reduce the consumption of raw materials from the native forest in the production of firewood and charcoal with laws that are effective and inhibit environmental crimes.

Finally, we can also facilitate the use of non-wood raw materials. In this field, the agro-industrial and carbonization processes and pyrolysis to produce charcoal using these raw materials are innovative. We can cite the steel briquettes and charcoal powder derived from agro-industrial residues and forestry as important developments to accomplish.

Considering that this year 2011 marks the International Year of Forests and also the International Year of Chemistry we can join these two great themes and celebrate the Green Chemistry and encourage the production of Steel Green.

José Rocha is Dilcio Embrapa researcher Agroenergia
Jose.rocha @ embrapa.br

Source: www.embrapa.org.br