On our planet, with the exception of nuclear sources, all the energy used by civilization comes from the sun. Even when we use oil (or coal), which we take from under of the land or ocean floor, we are appropriating an ancestral photosynthesis, which was retained in the “corpses” of animals, plants and, mainly, photosynthetic microorganisms, over billions of years. This is an extraordinary energy saving, which man made intense use of since the development of the machines that gave rise to the Industrial Revolution.

In an extremely simplified way, everything goes through the “biomass equation”: “solar energy plus water plus carbon dioxide equals biomass”, which starts a long “value chain”, which goes from photosynthetic organisms, at the base of this chain, to those who feed on those who fed on the biomass. When we put civilization in this chain, what we do is exactly the same thing: we use biomass, living or dead, as a source of energy for absolutely everything we do, from our food to the most sophisticated industrial transformations.



Deep down, it's all part of the same flow of energy, which is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed. For example, let's think that we plant sugarcane and, with it, we produce ethanol, biomethane and bioelectricity; the biomethane will be used to drive all the plant's machines, and the surplus will be converted into green hydrogen; the pure carbon dioxide from the fermentation will be buried or used as a carbon base for the production of new fuels using bioelectricity (the so-called electrofuels ), among other innovations.

In a situation like this, when we do the math from the Life Cycle Analysis, we will verify that “burning” ethanol in a flex-fuel car will represent net carbon capture, however counterintuitive as it seems. The various energy transformations have led to the net sequestration of carbon.

However, the same is not true of the burning of fossil fuels, whose process simply increases the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, without any recycling. Just to give you an idea of what this means, when the planet's atmosphere increases by one degree in temperature due to the increased concentration of these gases, this represents a retention of about 1 times 10 to the 19 kilo Joules of extra solar energy, a value that represents, approximately, all the existing oil reserve on the planet.

That's a lot of energy, which would normally just be reflected and sent back out into space. As it was retained, it has to get out somehow, and, as we learned in school physics classes, this dissipation occurs in the form of work, that is, a mass that is transported from one point to another. This mass is the fluids, both air and liquids. These fluids, catapulted by this tremendous energy, end up generating changes in air and ocean currents, which lead to the acceleration of climate change.

As a practical result, the geographic zoning is modified, that is, where corn is planted today (because we have regular rains), tomorrow will no longer be possible; where rain-fed cane is planted today, because of the flying rivers that come from the Amazon, tomorrow there will not be enough water; where today is forest, tomorrow could be savannah, generating a destructive domino effect for the entire water-dependent chain that this exuberant system places in the atmosphere.

In short, this is the problem, which starts from the “biomass equation”. We need to increase the production of biomass, to retain more carbon dioxide and thus reduce the energy accumulated in the atmosphere, which would “pacify” the climate. However, for that, we need water to irrigate our crops, which is in short supply exactly as a consequence of this process. So, a typical dilemma of who comes first, the chicken or the egg.

It is precisely to solve this that we are launching a great Program, whose name reflects its ambition: BRAVE, Brazilian Program for the development of Agave. The principle is simple. Analyzing the biosphere, we know of the existence of a set of plants capable of living in the semi-arid region due to a special photosynthetic metabolism, called CAM, crassulacean acid metabolism. The strategy is to close the stomata (a kind of small mouths present on the leaves) during the day, when it is hot, and to open them during the night to allow the entry of carbon dioxide.

This carbon dioxide is then concentrated in the form of an acid (which explains, for example, the acidity of pineapple), which will release this carbon dioxide captured during the day, already inside the plant, allowing it to finish the photosynthesis. In a few cases, this process allows not only the survival of plants, but also a great productivity in biomass. This is exactly the case for species of the agave genus, which have great variability, some accumulating more sugar in their pseudostem, such as Agave tequilana , while others accumulate more fiber in their leaves, such as Agave sisalana . Making a parallel with sugarcane, it is as if we had sugarcane and energy cane.

The numbers are extraordinary. These plants are capable of producing, after about 5 years, a total of more than 800 tons of biomass per hectare, which would generate about of 7,500 liters of first and second generation ethanol per hectare per year when annualized. These numbers are very close to sugarcane.

However, they are obtained in semi-arid areas, with scarce and irregular rainfall and very little addition of fertilizer. But it's not about magic. This is the result of millions of years of genetic improvement made by evolution. In Mexico, where the species originate, they are the source of Tequila, which would be equivalent to our Cachaça, made from sugarcane. However, unlike Brazil, Mexico has not advanced in the development of the biofuels chain from these plants, and this is the main objective of the Brazilian Program for the development of Agave.

This program, financed by Shell from the Research and Development Clause of the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, aims to convert Agave into a Sertão Sugarcane, acting on all the necessary fronts for the complete development of the value chain and using much of the sugarcane learning, which developed in an intuitive way.

Thus, the objectives of the Brazilian Program for the development of Agave, which will combine science and technology, with the association of universities (State University of Campinas, University of São Paulo, Paulista State University, Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia) and research institutes and innovation (National Service for Industrial Learning and Integrated Center for Manufacture and Technology), are the development of the following points:
(1) Suitable varieties of Agave;
(2) Cheap and healthy seedlings;
(3) Herbicide and insect resistant varieties;
(4) Agricultural Management for proper soil preparation, planting, harvesting and logistics;
(5) System for biogas production;
(6) biorefineries for processing different parts of the plant to produce first and second generation ethanol;
(7) Pyrolysis process for the generation of bio-oil and biochar;
(8) System of incorporation of carbon to the soil from the use of biochar;
(9) Life Cycle Analysis System for detailed carbon cycle analysis; and
(10) System for integrating biorefineries of agave in the Brazilian hinterland, with the recovery of the caatinga and the generation of employment and income, in a sustainable way and valuing the local culture.

As we know, the sertão corresponds to more than 10% of our territory. Living in this region is for the strong, according to Euclides da Cunha, in his masterpiece Os sertões. It is extremely difficult to plan under existing conditions, which do not have an annual climate cycle. The corn that is planted today may simply not grow, something that may be repeated in the next and subsequent years.

Few solutions were found to face this logic, one of which was exactly sisal, now planted mainly around the municipality of Valente, a self-explanatory name, in the so-called Sisal Territory, which houses about 700,000 people (living, directly or indirectly, from culture). So, we already have a pilot to show that we are in the right direction, now with the opportunity to amplify this principle.

We are at the forefront of a revolution. The hinterland could become an Oasis of Sun, a Promised Land, where science and technology, with the right public policies, will generate extraordinary value chains, which will have the potential to transform Brazil into the first, and perhaps the only, carbon negative nation on the planet.