Brazil is recognized as a country endowed with edaphoclimatic characteristics (soil and climate conditions), which allow diverse sources of biomass to thrive in a comprehensive way. As a popular song in Brazil sings, we live in a tropical country, blessed by God and beautiful by nature. Faced with such a fruitful supply, Brazil occupies a prominent position in the world in terms of biotechnology and bioenergy, and the latter could not fail to be one of the strengths of the Brazilian strategy towards a sustainable energy future.

The use of biomass in the energy industry takes place through different technological routes in the country: traditionally, we directly use firewood, sugarcane bagasse, lye, waste from the pulp and paper sector, and rice, through combustion; and, through the transformation into biofuels, sugars from sugarcane give rise to ethanol, and oils from oilseed crops, such as soybeans and cotton, and tallow or animal fats are inputs for biodiesel and renewable diesel.

But, in addition to the best known, there are several alternative biomasses available for energy use in the country, such as sugarcane residues (straws and tips, vinasse and filter cake), residues from the wood industry (chips), soybeans and corn, rice and coffee husks, coconut residues, beans, peanuts, cassava and cocoa, agro-industrial and livestock residues from confinement, sewage treatment plant sludge and urban solid residues, among others, which can be used to direct combustion or production of biofuels.

In the breakdown of Brazil's domestic energy supply in 2021, sugarcane biomass accounted for 16.4% of our energy matrix, with other renewables (including lye and biodiesel) accounting for an additional 8.7%. This bioenergy moves the country and mainly serves the transport sector and the electricity sector: while, in the electricity sector, the share of biomass reached 8.2% in 2021, in the transport sector, it reached 22.6% in the same year.

The participation of bioenergy in transport dates back to the 1930s. However, it gained space in our energy matrix in the 1970s, with the mandatory blending of anhydrous ethanol with gasoline and direct and indirect incentives for this biofuel. At the beginning of the 21st century , the National Biodiesel Production and Use Program and, more recently, the National Biofuels Policy and the Fuel of the Future Program were launched. All are public policies aimed at encouraging renewable fuels in Brazil, which ensure that, both in the medium and long term, biofuels not only maintain a relevant share in the Brazilian energy matrix, but, in fact, increasingly expand their its presence already in the ten-year scenario.

Likewise, in the electricity sector, the use of biomass is not recent. In fact, the use of energy from sugarcane bagasse coincides with the implementation of the first plants in Brazilian territory. This residual input, however, was initially intended for self-consumption, with incentives for renewable sources in electricity generation being more recent than in the transport sector.

An important milestone for the intensification of the use of bioenergy in the generation of electricity is the Incentive Program for Alternative Sources of Electric Energy, a program created by law, with the objective of increasing the participation of alternative renewable sources (small hydroelectric power plant, wind and biomass) in the production of electricity.

Over the last few years, bioelectricity has maintained a relevant participation in the national electricity matrix. The total energy contracted in the regulated market (Regulated Contracting Environment) will reach approximately 1 average gigawatt by the end of 2025, with emphasis on the sugar-energy sector, which has been increasing its contribution to the electrical matrix with bioelectricity.

By the end of the decade, an expansion of the bioelectricity generation period is expected, incorporating straws and tips and, in some cases, biomass other than sugarcane. It is estimated that the projection based on history will reach 4.1 average gigawatts, and the technical potential for commercialization, from biomass, will be 6 average gigawatts by the end of the decade. It should be noted that, although sugarcane derivatives have figured as major protagonists among biomass in electricity generation, the use of other sources, such as black liquor, has shown an increase in its share in recent years.

Another source with great potential for participation in the national energy matrix is biogas. Projections by the Energy Research Company indicate that biogas from the sugar-energy sector will have a greater insertion in the energy matrix, being able to be destined not only for electric generation, but in the substitution of diesel and mixed with fossil natural gas, in the gas pipeline networks. It is estimated that the production potential, by the end of the decade, will be 7.1 billion of normal cubic meter from vinasse and filter cake and from 5.7 billion of normal cubic meter from sugarcane straws and tips.

Considering the emergence of new technologies with high efficiency and lower environmental impacts in their use, including cooperating to mitigate global warming, bioenergy is gaining more and more space as one of the most promising options for a sustainable energy future. And this effect is already noticeable today: the high share of renewables in the national energy matrix provides a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions avoided by the use of ethanol (anhydrous and hydrated) and biodiesel in the transport sector totaled 66.9 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2021. In the Brazilian electricity matrix, which has one of the lowest carbon intensity in the world, the sugarcane bioelectricity contributed to the mitigation of 4.3 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Bioenergy has the potential to change the world, making a decisive contribution to the energy transition. On a global scale, in addition to being one of the most viable alternatives to replace the use of fossil fuels, the different types of bioenergy are seen as a way to increase carbon capture in the production of hydrocarbons. And this is already a reality and an advantage for Brazil.