We have no doubt of the importance that integrated food and energy production systems, such as sugarcane, will have in the global effort to decarbonize, which is now a global priority.

Despite the fact that the northern hemisphere is starting to adopt the mass electric car, in Brazil, due to a series of factors, we will still have the supremacy of flex-fuel vehicles for a long time to come. fuel in the light fleet.

But even with the predominance of electric vehicles in most of the global market, with inevitable repercussions on the pattern of the Brazilian market in the long term, the concept of electrification can be combined with the use of ethanol, for example, by using cars with a hybrid engine to ethanol, as is already the case today in a model made by the manufacturer Toyota, this model being, in fact, the one with the best performance available in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, as revealed by an analysis carried out by the União da Indústria de Cana-de-Açúcar e Bioenergy.

A hybrid flex vehicle fueled with ethanol emits, from well to wheel, just 29 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, while a battery electric vehicle emits 37 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, under the conditions of the Brazilian grid, with high participation of renewable sources in the Brazilian electric energy matrix. This difference tends to be even more representative outside the Brazilian market, given that, in Europe, a battery electric vehicle emits, on average, 54 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

In addition, other possibilities for combining ethanol and electric vehicles are currently being developed, such as the use of ethanol fuel cell technologies. In these cells, electricity is chemically extracted from the alcohol molecule to drive the vehicles' electric motors, which are more efficient than combustion engines. This can disruptively increase the efficiency of using ethanol as an energy source.

In other words, ethanol, which is already a competitive solution for decarbonizing light vehicles, can be used much more efficiently in the future. Due to the high hydrogen content contained in ethanol, we have a great advantage over the rest of the world, as Brazil already has the largest distribution network on the planet installed, through more than 41,700 retail outlets distributing ethanol in a country of continental dimensions.

The opportunity for ethanol to play a leading role becomes even clearer, however, when it can go beyond use in light vehicles. Europe, for example, intends to establish a mandatory mandate of 2% biofuel in aviation kerosene from 2025.

Another extremely auspicious fact was that sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil was recognized by the American Environmental Agency as sustainable for the production of aviation biokerosene. If, today, ethanol is used as a substitute for gasoline, in the future it could serve as a platform for the production of sustainable fuels for aviation.

A state-of-the-art distillery can manufacture, already in the 2020s, a wide variety of bioenergy products. Among them, first-generation ethanol, derived from the fermentation of sugarcane juice, and second-generation ethanol, derived from the fermentation of sugarcane lignocellulosic products (bagasse and straw), stand out. Perfect substitute for gasoline. It also generates biomethane, derived from the purification of biogas obtained from residual vinasse and a substitute for natural gas, and lignin pellets, derived from the non-fermentable residual part of lignocellulosic material destined for the production of second-generation ethanol and a solid biofuel of interest to the market. European market, mainly to reduce the need to burn mineral coal. It also produces bioelectricity, generated from surplus thermoelectric generation with sugarcane bagasse not used in the production of second-generation ethanol, which, if dispatchable, can replace the marginal source entering the Brazilian grid, for example, the natural gas.

In 2030, the increase in decarbonization efficiency, compared to the 2020 scenario, will come through agricultural productivity gains and the implementation of carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies and will greatly reinforce this basket. And, if we look into the more distant future, even more doors open for the Brazilian sugarcane value chain. This is because biotechnology should play a critical role in economic production, and sugar is the main input for biotechnological processes.