Biogas in Brazil

Overview

Brazil is one of the countries with the most advanced biomass energy market. Biofuels are produced from sugar cane and hundreds of power plants are using the remaining sugar cane bagasse as fuel. Most of these plants use direct combustion and have capacities far over 1 MW.

But some small biomass power plants also exist, most of them based on biogas technology. Some of them are listed in the Brazilian database “BIG - Banco de Informações de Geração”. The smaller plants include the following:

Ouro Verde ETE Ouro Verde	20 kW	operated by de Saneamento do Paraná – Sanepar Companhia de Saneamento do Paraná – Sanepar, in Foz do Iguaçu PR
Energ-Biog	30 kW	Users Network do Brasil Biomass Users Network do Brasil,Barueri SP
Colombari Granja Colombari	32 kW	Carlos Colombari José Carlos Colombari,São Miguel do Iguaçu - PR
Industrial de Vegetais Unidade Industrial de Vegetais	40 kW	Agroindustrial Lar Cooperativa Agroindustrial LarItaipulândia - PR
Industrial de Aves Unidade Industrial de Aves	160 kW	Agroindustrial Lar Cooperativa Agroindustrial LarMatelândia – PR

Source: http://www.aneel.gov.br/aplicacoes/capacidadebrasil/GeracaoTipoFase.asp?tipo=2&fase=3

All of these plants in Parana (PR) won a tender in 2009 to sell their electricity to the public energy provider COPEL DISTRIBUIÇÃO SA in the southern Brazilian state Paraná. The feed-in tariff of about 128 – 130 R$ / MWh corresponds roughly to 50 € / MWh or 0.05 EUR / kWh (COPEL, 2009).

This price is not high enough to guarantee a profitable operation of biogas power plants in Brazil. Nevertheless it is an important step forward as it can help to make the plants more profitable. The main purpose of these plants (using the waste of a slaughterhouse or animal production facility) is sanitation and environmental protection. The second important benefit is the gas and electricity production for own use in the companies. Only the excess electricity is sold at the fixed feed-in tariff.

Already in 2002, a programme for the support of alternative energy resources (PROINFA) was approved in Brazil. One objective was to feed in more than 600 MW of biomass energy into the national grid. However, the implementation was confronted with delays. And only big power plants with direct combustion of the biomass could benefit from this programme. The mentioned 5 biogas power plants are now the very first small plants that can utilize the feed-in tariff (Source: Grope, 2009 ).

The GTZ programme Energy Programme („Programa Energia”) on behalf of German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development supports the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Brazil and hence also the appropriate production and use of biogas. The programme aims to improve the framework conditions for sustainable use of biogas, the analysis of experience and know-how transfer between German and Brazilian partners. In October 2009, the GTZ Energy Programme started a partnership with the public energy utility Eletrosul, subsidiary of Eletrobras, the national electricity provider, focussing on know-how transfer in the field of biogas. Eletrosul aims constructing biogas power plants for electricity generation in the South of Brazil.

There are probably several biogas plants in farms or small industries that use the gas for individual power generation. This is indicated by the existence of a special biogas motor programme offered by the Brazilian company Branco. It offers small motors, motor pumps and a generator set of 3.6 kW especially for Biogas use (http://www.branco.com.br/p_lb.htm).