Hydrogen is the simplest and most common element in the entire universe. It has the highest amount of energy per unit mass of any known fuel, approximately 120,700 kilojoules per kilogram, about three times more heat than oil. When cooled to the liquid state, low molecular weight hydrogen occupies a space equivalent to one and seven hundredth of the space it would occupy in the gaseous state, making its storage and transport possible.

Developmental research in relation to hydrogen is being carried out all over the world with the aim of reducing mainly the costs of its production, storage, transport, security and infrastructure. Most of the hydrogen produced is still used as a raw material in the manufacture of products such as fertilizers, conversion of liquid oil into margarine, the plastics manufacturing process and in the cooling of generators and engines. However, hydrogen research is rapidly focusing on generating electricity and pure water through “Fuel Cells”, which can provide energy for stationary or mobile equipment.

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that hydrogen is the most basic and abundant chemical element in nature and that its combustion is completely clean. There is a movement in favor of an economy based on hydrogen rather than oil. Hydrogen-based technology is undoubtedly very promising, and it will be the energy carrier of the future. The full use of energy produced by intermittent sources, such as wind and photovoltaic, depends on the use of energy accumulators. The energy density of batteries is still very low, and hydrogen could be an alternative for higher density energy storage. See details in graph 1.



The new market demands, mainly for driving land transport vehicles, have been indicating that electric platforms will occupy a large space, mainly due to the simplicity and costs of electric vehicles and the non-local emission of pollutants carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, Carbon, Nitrogen Oxide, Sulfur Oxide. However, some problems present themselves as the source that produces the energy to be consumed, distribution infrastructure and mainly batteries, which will have their size associated with the power demanded by vehicles (energy density) and materials for construction.

For vehicles up to 10 tons, with an average radius of 100 kilometers per day, the rechargeable battery solution will probably be recommended. For vehicles of up to 10,000 tons and an average radius of up to 1,000 kilometers per day (large cars, trucks and trains), the likely solution will be the use of hydrogen with fuel cells. For larger tonnages and distances (planes and ships), the direct use of biofuel will probably be recommended. See details in graph 2.



Hydrogen must have a large share in the energy matrix in a short time and can be produced through renewable sources, such as wind and photovoltaic energy, which are intermittent and produced not necessarily close to the places of consumption. These problems can be overcome by installing storage and distribution infrastructure, which normally require high investments. Producing hydrogen from biomass would overcome storage problems and could utilize existing fuel distribution infrastructure today.

Ethanol, as well as biomethane, methanol and ammonia, can be used as “stable vectors” of hydrogen, which, after going through a process called reforming, can release hydrogen and water. In this way, we can directly fill the vehicle with ethanol and obtain the hydrogen through a reformer installed in the vehicle itself, or use larger reformers installed at gas stations, which would directly supply the vehicles with hydrogen.

Considering the portfolio of products in the sugar-energy sector, we can produce hydrogen from ethanol, surplus electricity and biomethane produced from cake and vinasse. Adopting the 2021-2022 crop production scenario, we can calculate the potential for hydrogen, leaving sugar production intact. Assuming a harvest of 660 million tons of sugarcane, with 41 million tons of sugar and 31.5 million cubic meters of ethanol (anhydrous basis) and 380 million cubic meters of vinasse.

For potential evaluation, we can consider these plants optimized for the consumption of process steam in the order of 450 kilograms of steam per ton of cane and using high pressure boilers (operating pressure of 67 kilograms-force per square centimeters and steam temperature of 500 degrees centigrade), which would allow a surplus production of 33,000 gigawatt hours of electrical energy.

The conversion of ethanol, biomethane from vinasse and surplus electricity would result in the production of 5.42 million tons of hydrogen. We can add 1.79 million tons of hydrogen to this potential, coming from second-generation ethanol. This production comes from straw, observing the limitation of the use of 50% of the potential to preserve the agronomic benefits of the soil cover.

In total, the potential is 7.2 million tons of hydrogen (11.9 kilograms of hydrogen per ton of cane or 0.82 ton of hydrogen per hectare), we can then make a comparison of the participation in the energy matrix with what ethanol represents today. Ethanol represents approximately 16% of the energy consumption of liquid fuels in Brazil, considering the energy potential and not simply the volume. Taking advantage of the hydrogen potential of the production of sugarcane installed today, this share would represent 40% of the energy consumed, basically due to the increase in efficiency in the production of energy by fuel cells.

If sugarcane is used only for the production of ethanol and energy, the potential for hydrogen production rises to 16.6 kilograms of hydrogen per ton of cane (1.2 ton of hydrogen per hectare). For the liquid fuel matrix to be 100% hydrogen, we would need 480 million tons of sugarcane, that is, an expansion of 6.5 million hectares.

Obviously, this expansion is very large, but if we consider increased efficiency in sugarcane production, or even the use of varieties that increase production per hectare, even if directed to biomass, the share of renewable fuels will grow. Another point to note is that ethanol can work well as a “Hydrogen Vector”, avoiding investments by using the distribution and storage infrastructure that exists today.