A mudança de estoque de carbono por transformação da terra e seu uso no inventário de ciclo de vida de produtos de origem renovável: estudo de caso da possível expansão da palma de óleo na Amazônia Legal Brasileira

Abstract

Shifting society„s dependence away from petroleum is essential for the maintenance of the viability of world industrial activity. This new context depends on a transition to the use of biological reserves, renewable energy, which can be converted into biofuels and biopolymers. In contrast, the production demands sometimes cause changes in land use, resulting in different impacts in nature. Thus, it is essential to include land use in Life Cycle Inventory of products and to evaluate its impacts. Brazil‟s location, climate and land availability, along with its energy independence policy and the global trend towards the use of renewable fuels, are favorable factors for the production of biofuels such as biodiesel from palm oil. On the other hand, some studies have shown that the environmental performance of biodiesel is not always better than that of petrodiesel, especially when there is substantial land transformation, generating, among other impacts, reduction in carbon stocks in soil and biomass. Considering the expansion of cultivation in the Amazon region, the study aims to evaluate the impact generated by the resulting changes in carbon stock in the life cycle emissions of palm biodiesel. These changes were obtained from the difference between the carbon stock in the current land use and in the intended use of the cultivation expansion, by linking carbon stock data to spatial data of soil, vegetation and land use in the Brazilian Amazon, using for it a geographic information system (GIS). Then, for the areas with negative variation, it was calculated the carbon payback time necessary for compensating these emissions from the land transformation, due to the environmental gain in the biodiesel production and consumption phases. Additionally, the carbon emission in palm oil biodiesel life cycle and the potential reduction of emissions in the substitution of conventional diesel were calculated. The results suggest that changes in carbon stocks are determining factors in defining the magnitude of carbon emissions in biodiesel life cycle and its inclusion is essential in the study, for which the GIS is a potential and meaningful tool.