Brazil ethanol producer developing carbon capture and storage project

Brazil's FS Agrisolutions Indústria de Biocombustíveis is developing a bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project at its ethanol plant in Lucas do Rio Verde, in Mato Grosso state. 

The project aims to capture the CO2 produced in the biofuel fermentation stage, representing a CO2 injection of 1,160t/d.

The CO2 will be captured in the fermentation vats and injected into a saline reservoir with a depth of more than 800m, sufficient to keep it in a supercritical state under hydrostatic pressure conditions. 

The gas is conditioned to have a purity of 99.9% and water content of around 120ppm. The CO2 leaves the fermentation vats with a purity of 95-98%, goes through a compression process and then the dehydration stage. 

Daniel Lopes, VP of sustainability and new business at FS, said the project is in the final stages of technical studies to make it geologically viable. 

"If it’s considered viable, the next steps will be to obtain the environmental license to install the system and to define the legal framework for a deal of this size," he told BNamericas. 

Only once these stages have been completed will the company present an updated construction schedule and a capex projection.

Lopes explained that, once the project has been implemented, ethanol produced in Lucas do Rio Verde will have a negative carbon footprint, apart from the gains from socio-environmental responsibility practices in the company's value chain.

"FS's vision is to be the largest producer of carbon-negative fuel in the world. BECCS is the way to get there," he said. 

According to the executive, the BECCS project relies on a set of technologies using solutions that have been well mastered by the oil industry for decades. 

FS has experience working with SLB (formerly Schlumberger) on seismic data interpretation and drilling project management, among other tasks.  

"Together, we selected a series of suppliers with recognized experience in the various specialties involved in the project, as well as experts in CCS projects for a second opinion," he said. 

The engineering project for injection and storage was developed in accordance with the guidelines of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and EPA Class VI standards and regulations.

FS's BECCS project recently won support from Finep, a public agency that promotes innovation and focuses on strategic, structuring and impactful actions for Brazil's sustainable development.

REGULATION

With the deployment of the project, FS could be one of the few in the world and the first under Brazil’s biofuels policy (RenovaBio) to have a negative carbon footprint. 

"This points to the opportunity to be explored by Brazil, where the ethanol industry already uses renewable energies, as well as having good agricultural characteristics, as in the case of second crop corn, unlike the US, which uses fossil grid energy (gas or coal), and does not have two crops, with greater impacts from land use," Brazil’s oil and gas watchdog ANP said in a recent report on the implementation of the CCUS regulatory framework. 

"Thus, the project in Brazil is not just about mitigating emissions, but about removing CO2 from the atmosphere," added the regulator.   

In the document – which also highlights federal oil company Petrobras' CCUS pilot project in Rio de Janeiro state –  ANP's technology and environment superintendence (STM) states that it has identified “regulation by pilot project” in international experience as the most appropriate alternative for dealing with these projects in the face of the regulatory gap. 

The idea is that these projects will serve as a basis for accumulating knowledge about CCUS and then regulating it in more general terms. 

STM pointed out, however, that regulation by pilot project requires some initial guidelines, provided by current regulations and transnational standards. 

Among the recommendations made to the agency's board are, in addition to recognizing regulation by pilot project as an appropriate instrument, making investments feasible in training ANP's technical staff and developing actions to promote social acceptance.