Biomass energy is strategic for Brazil and other countries in similar conditions, for many reasons, and, therefore, should be recognized and valued as such. Fundamentally, biomass is solar energy captured by photosynthesis, stored in carbon chains that allow its processing and conversion into countless products and applications.

They are photovoltaic solar energy panels of biological origin, with the advantage of not emitting carbon in their manufacture and disposal. All countries with high insolation rates, and with availability of natural resources available, without threatening the integrity of forest reserves, their natural resources or their biodiversity, have the possibility of efficiently and responsibly exploiting biomass as a source of energy. As already identified Fatih Birol , executive director of the International Energy Agency, a body of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development which brings together the richest and most developed countries on the planet, “biomass is the neglected and sleeping giant”.

Biomass is strategic because it is flexible and generates employment. The energy products derived from it have numerous applications. Among the most recognized, we have biofuels in general (ethanol, biodiesel, biogas and biomethane), bioelectricity , advanced firewood, and biochar. But they also include all the products and co-products that derive from them, such as the plastics produced from the conversion of ethanol through the ethylene route and the acetic route, the biogenic carbon dioxide that can be converted into synthetic fuels, and many others.

If it's so good, why is there little recognition of its importance? The first reason may be related to the simple lack of information and knowledge about its advantages.

But it may also be that many countries and governments are not interested in valuing biomass energy, because, in fact, they do not have the same competitive advantages as countries like Brazil, where insolation occurs in most of its territory twice as much as that found in European countries.

Some countries may have insolation equivalent to that of Brazil, such as that found in various parts of the United States, China or North Africa, but without the same availability of water for the generation of biomass for food and energy production. Or, they have the same amount of sunlight, water and land available, but without the infrastructure, social fabric and regulations prepared for the production of biomass in an efficient and structured way.

Its appreciation and recognition is a matter of strategic positioning and marketing. Ireland, as an example, positions itself as a green country par excellence, but it is nowhere near as close to all the efforts that Brazil has made to preserve native forests, legal reserves on private properties, indigenous reserves, and in the renewable content of our generation electricity (92% in 2022) and our matrix of Otto cycle fuels, used in transport (39.6% more in the first half of 2023, reaching up to 48.4% in 2019).

Countries located in desert regions like Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with the expenditure of enormous resources, build conditions that try to emulate those found naturally in countries like Brazil, but not only here. India, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Paraguay, Colombia, and many others, have the conditions and vocation to carry out the same work, and they are starting to do it.

In Brazil, from a strategic point of view, we are still in the middle of the path of energy use from biomass. The diversification of sugarcane processing towards ethanol and bioelectricity was a great and historic step, with very relevant gains for the trade balance, the environment, the promotion of decentralized development and support for the development of a local automotive engineering dedicated to the use of ethanol. But we still have a lot to improve in terms of the energy efficiency of the plants, hence the importance and the first reason for RenovaBio, as a program that aims to stimulate investment in increasing environmental energy efficiency .

We still have a long way to go in the energy use of ethanol in engines. We also need to learn to value the positive seasonality of bioelectricity generation from sugarcane bagasse and straw, due to its complementarity with hydraulic generation.

We still have a lot to develop in understanding that ethanol and biomethane are practical, efficient, economical and safe ways to capture, store, transport and distribute hydrogen.

The whole world is turning to the valuation of hydrogen, and taxonomies based on colors, from its origin, are increasingly profuse: brown, gray, blue, turquoise, pink, orange and green. Simply put, hydrogen has a high energy content but is generally too expensive to produce from most sources.

Once produced, it tends to be expensive and risky to store, transport, and distribute. Requires Titanium tanks, at pressures ranging from 500 to 900 bar. For that reason, the best thing to do, when produced, is to turn it into something or use it as an energy source close to its generation.

For this reason, it is necessary to recognize that Brazil is already the most advanced country in the world, in what the world is pursuing more intensely at the moment, which is the hydrogen economy.

We already have a hydrogen distribution network installed in the form of the ethanol distribution park, through tanks in primary and secondary bases, pipelines, and more than 42,000 fueling stations. All it takes is reforming, or separating the hydrogen contained in ethanol, to make hydrogen available in a decentralized manner throughout the country. This should be the brightest flag of our communication and positioning strategy in international forums related to energy and the environment.

We need to abandon strategies doomed to failure, such as subsidizing the price of fossil fuels such as gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas, which discourage private investment in new oil refineries, which are still necessary here.

Subsidizing the price and encouraging the use of fossil fuels, often cancerous, does not make the slightest sense, under any angle. Similarly, strategies that discourage the production of clean and efficient ethanol and other biomass derivatives mean that our foreign exchange reserves are wasted with unnecessary imports of gasoline and diesel.

On the contrary, we need to create policies that encourage the responsible, environmentally sustainable production of renewable energy, such as biomass, which needs to be evaluated and valued on the same basis as other forms of energy, ideally using the cradle-to-neck evaluation metric tomb. Assessments that include the total impact of production and disposal of all production and use links in other forms of energy, classified as renewable or not.

What distinguishes societies that manage to genuinely and lastingly advance in the organization of their productive processes, using local or imported resources, in the long term, is their ability to create regulations that direct private efforts towards economic and environmental efficiency.

In Brazil, we have been graced with varied and extensive reserves of natural assets, but we have been remiss, as a society, in building conditions that encourage concerted efforts towards what is desirable in the long term.

Biomass energy is one of our greatest strengths, and cannot be treated like the Geni of the energy sector.

On the contrary, it needs to be nurtured with care and all the attention that our greatest creation, our most valuable asset, deserves. Thus, it will continue to bear fruit, and the desired development and social well-being.