Bioenergies, defined as energy produced from organic matter or biomass, have recently become one of the most dynamic and rapidly changing sectors of the global energy economy [1]. Policy makers and technology developers are both spending huge resources in order to accelerate the innate time-lapse demanded for it to reach markets with competitive performances. Such strong effort can be explained by foreseen growing energy demands opposed to a scenarios of “peak oil” and consequent price instability [2]. Often seen as a promising solution to support part of oil demand for transportation, modern bioenergies technologies are advancing with much of the recent interest focusing on liquid biofuels, in particular ethanol and biodiesel [1]. Even though promising, the entire production of biofuels represented in 2008 only 2.2% of total fuel demand. However, this number should increase to 26.0% in 2050 [2]. Figure 1 shows data for biofuels evolution from 2000 to 2008 for both ethanol and biodiesel production.

At the same time that world leaders are impelled to address energy-related questions, humanity faces what some call the biggest crisis in human history: climate change. Increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially CO₂, from virtually all human activities are verified every year and it is most likely to be altering natural carbon cycle's fluxes among [3]. This phenomenon added to huge growth on population and its demands for energy and resources are increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ and other GHG to levels higher than those of the last half Million years, and temperature seems to be slowly following such tendency [4].

International Energy Agency's Greenhouse Gas Programme (IEA GHG) states (Figure 2) that renewable energy, which includes bioenergy, will play a significative role for world's effort to reduce CO₂eq emissions until 2050, aiming for a stabilization scenario of 14Gt CO₂ by that year. [2].

A technology roadmap is a document that identifies (for a set of product needs) the critical system requirements, the product and process performance targets, and the technology alternatives and milestones for meeting those targets. In effect, a technology roadmap identifies alternate technology “roads” for meeting certain performance objectives. A single path may be selected and a plan developed. If there is high uncertainty or risk, then multiple paths may be selected and pursued concurrently.

The roadmap identifies precise objectives and helps focus resources on the critical technologies that are needed to meet those objectives. This focusing is important because it allows increasingly limited R&D investments to be used more effectively. This activity consists of an iterative process that fits within the broader corporate strategic planning, technology planning, and business development context. It brings together a team of experts to develop a framework for organizing and presenting the critical technology- planning information to make the appropriate technology investment decisions.

The main technology roadmap structure is formed by critical system requirements and targets, technology areas, technology drivers and targets, technology alternatives, recommended alternatives or paths, and a roadmap report - although with different levels of detail.

Planning activities must link three critical elements: customer/market needs, products/services, and technologies. The corporate vision drives the strategic planning effort, which generates high-level business goals and directions. Given a corporate vision, strategic planning involves decisions that identify and link at a high level the customer/market needs and the products and services to satisfy those needs. Given this strategic plan, technology planning involves identifying, selecting, and investing in the technologies to support these products and service requirements.

Technology road mapping is critical when the technology investment decision is not straight forward. This occurs when it is not clear which alternative to pursue (e.g., enhance an existing technology or replace it with a new technology), how quickly the technology is needed, or when there is a need to coordinate the development of multiple technologies.

A preliminary screening was performed by Climate-Consulting and its consultants aiming to assess state-of-the-art low carbon technologies for Brazil and its actual scenario. This initial phase of work is focused primarily on optimizing the ethanol and biodiesel sectors, increasing productivity through recovery of lost energy and byproducts. Therefore, much of the aforementioned technologies will not be approached now, especially forestry-related technologies.

It was considered as top priority the recycling of CO₂ from fermentation tanks (i.e. used for ethanol conversion) as for its purity and abundance. Also, the purpose of selecting technologies from the so called “low carbon techs” is to permanently address the mischiefing case of sugarcane ethanol life-cycle. When captured and recycled into additional fuels, Brazilian ethanol are most likely to become negative in terms of net emission - exact calculations still to be finished.

Climate-Consulting and its partners strongly believe that recycling of CO₂ into mass algae growth and conversion into new fuels at biorefineries will be key technology for Brazilian ethanol industry [10].

Dr. Pengcheng Fu, head of La Wahie Foundation International, recently developed a novel approach for algal biofuels production. Dr. Fu utilizes genetically modified cyanobacteria for creating a fermentation pathway in its metabolism. This way, at the same time they consume CO₂ for photosynthesis, ethanol is yielded as a natural byproduct in the water. This solution is then separated at a special membrane, delivering pure ethanol without further steps [11]. Figure 5 brings a schematic configuration for Dr. Fu's laboratorial ethanol production.

It is known that for each liter of ethanol produced, 0.6 Kg of CO₂ can be easily recovered and stored at almost no cost. If we consider 2008 production of 27 Billion liters of ethanol, theoretically 16.2 Million tons of pure CO₂ could be recycled into new fuels and energetic feedstocks (e.g. biomass, syngas). If cyanobacteria were to be growth by consuming this amount of CO₂ while producing ethanol at laboratorial rates (i.e. 0,523g of ethanol per gram of CO₂ consumed), up to 10.5 Billion Liters of additional fuel would be generated. Theoretically, this means an additional production of almost 40% of all ethanol produced in Brazil, using as primary feedstock wasted CO2, water, sugar nutrients and sun light. Further pilot and demonstration projects shall provide more accurate numbers for this technology and the ethanol industry in Brazil are most likely to become astonished by the new economic driver represented by pure CO₂ at significative quantities [13].

Advanced conversion of biomass residues was also pointed as a important technology for Brazil, once the Country produces massive amounts of non utilized, or mismanaged residues from its agricultural sector. For that, gasification of solid biomass and reform of liquid fuels reform, together with catalytic depolimeryzation are seen key players for the Country for mid/long term perspective. Figure 6 brings the preliminary results from Climate-Consulting's assessment of sustainable technologies for bioenergy production in Brazil.

Notes for Figure 6:

• Total technologies evaluated/selected for the Roadmap exceed those showed on figure 6;

• It was not considered for this phase biomass direct combustion with CO2 capture;

• It was not considered for this phase utilization of sugarcane bagasse for other purposes than CHP (also not displayed in this diagram);

• All feedstocks are elegible for gasification;

• Pond/PBR(Photobioreactor) with Cyanobacteria refers to Dr. Pencheng Fu's (La Wahie Foundation International) patented technology for cyanobacterial ethanol direct production [10];

• Biomass/Plastic Liquefaction Plant employs Catalytic Depolymerization technologies for hydrocarbon conversion in crude oil, which can be refined into diesel for commercialization.

• An “Algae Factory” stands for all types of controlled systems for large scale algae creation (i.e. open ponds, closed ponds, PBR), aiming for both cyanobacterial ethanol production or traditional algal oil extraction.

The Brazilian Roadmap for Sustainable Bioenergies Production will help identify critical issues to be developed and potential areas of implementation. Research and development, pilot and demonstration projects will be proposed. National academy and environmental organizations will be involved in various international protocols and companies will develop multi client projects using Brazilian and foreign experience. Specialists will discuss the best bioenergy technologies to be implemented in Brazil, providing to government and companies a strategic and technical document that helps to protect their investments.

It is expected that the very first phase of this Roadmap may already encourage development of other activities for bioenergies production in Brazil than those described in the first phase. Further steps will also include non-technical aspects for the proposed technologies, such as public acceptance, legal and regulatory framework, technology transfer and R&D programs, and for that it will demand strong participation from Brazilian government.

The bottom line for proposing this complex Roadmap is to help Brazil define sustainable pathways towards expansion of its energy demand foreseen for next decades. This proposal will help us to understand how to invest and to increase the share of biomass in the national energy mix with competitive performances and reduced CO₂ emissions.