1st Brazilian BioEnergy Science and Technology Conference
Autor: didi | Publicado: 2011-08-13T02:31:00-07:00

 			 				 			 			 				 				 		 Campos do Jordão - August - 14 to 18, 2011 

From  the demand side, the goals of eliminating world poverty and of  generally improving standards of living for most of mankind, sets the  scale of the challenge. A 2 kW per capita society, and this is a  relatively modest number, for 15 billion human beings, amounts to a  total primary power demand of 30 TW; twice as much as the present day  amount. At the very cheap price of US$ 1,000 per kW of installed  generating capacity, we are talking about investments, for generation  only, of 15 trillion dollars. And who believes in this bargain price  these days, especially when we will need new, some yet unproven even  undiscovered, technologies and probably new distribution networks? Of  course, we are talking about investments spread over decades, not years.  But, even so, the physical and financial scales of this enterprise are  staggering.

Scale sets the quantitative challenge. But quality is  not a lesser concern. Looking at the supply side, from the technical  point of view, we know perfectly well what our alternatives are at the  scales required. Not many. In fact, only one real hope: solar energy and  its transforms. Nuclear energy, the recent tragedy in Japan  notwithstanding, remains an option, at best, for a transitional period.  With present day technologies and identified resources, nuclear energy  can supply a total of 200.000 TWeh[1], the equivalent of six years of  the projected electricity demand for 2030. As for fossil fuels, which we  may classify as a transform of solar energy, the debate seems to be  moving away from reserves to consequences, from uncertainties in peak  production years to certainties of climate change. Fossil fuels,  nuclear, and hydropower dominate the primary energy supply today.  Hydropower (again a form of solar energy) is inherently limited by  geophysical considerations. These three technologies are frozen into  capital assets of long duration. In a world going through uncertain  economic times, it is highly unlikely that they will be dumped overnight  in favor of new, more expensive, supply limited technologies. So, the  world will have to, the best it can, muddle through an energy crisis and  its social, economic, and geopolitical consequences that will be long  and could be severe. Not a nice prospect, nor a very optimistic one.  But, I am afraid, fairly realistic.

We have a very significant flux of energy at our disposal: our good  old faithful fusion reactor, the Sun. It tries to help, but the best it  can do is send us an almost steady supply of electromagnetic power. We  have technologies to transform this radiant power into electricity or to  store it into chemical bonds. The problem is that these technologies  are still too inefficient and expensive. We might say, contrary to the  pessimistic view, that our energy problems are solved in principle. It  is only a matter of money and political will. This would be true if only  the inefficiencies and costs did not have environmental consequences  and physical and financial constraints. We are working hard, spending a  lot less than we should, but nonetheless spending in R&amp;D, to find  new and better solutions to the conversion of solar energy. I believe  that we will find these solutions, sooner or later. But their deployment  will be costly and slow. In the meantime, we must still survive.

Plants  exist because chance and evolution invented and perfected  photosynthesis, an astonishing and still somewhat mysterious molecular  mechanism to convert solar radiant power into stocks of chemical energy.  The vast majority of heterotrophs, like us, exploit this ability of  plants in order to survive. We even feed our machines solar/chemical  energy from plants long dead. The downside of this solution, as we are  painfully learning, is the introduction of greenhouse gases into the  atmosphere, in particular CO2 from combustion, at rates far greater than  those that the geosphere can “metabolize”. As a result, they accumulate  in the atmosphere in growing amounts, reaching levels that we  increasingly believe are too high for the stability of global climate. 

Bioenergy  seeks to exploit photosynthesis, as efficiently as possible, to  increase total primary power supply. Its great advantage is that, in  principle, it can lead to a net atmospheric carbon balance that is zero  or even slightly negative. The downsides are that “in principle” is not  always “in practice”, and that we may end up using land and water in  undesirable and unsustainable ways in order to produce the vast amounts  of bioenergy required to keep our industrial civilization running.

There  is no perfect solution. But, there are better and worse solutions. In  order to identify and develop these better solutions, we need to involve  the best brains we can muster in their search. That is, we need to  invest in R&amp;D and engineering, and we need to attract top talents to  work in the field of bioenergy. It is an exciting inter and  multi-disciplinary field: from molecular biology to chemical  engineering, from agronomy to environmental science, from sustainability  studies to economics, and much more. It is true that the challenge does  not stop at the laboratories and pilot plants. It involves political,  regulatory, military, trade, and financial aspects, that take us far  away from photosynthesis, but that inseparable concerns whenever energy  is discussed.

Brazil is a world leader in bioenergy. We all know  that. With abundant land, water, sun, and the wonderful sugarcane, it  has a privileged situation as a producer of bioenergy. But this  leadership may be easily lost if the country does not invest heavily in  R&amp;D and engineering, to face the enormous technical challenges of  increasing the scale of production, at the same time minimizing the  environmental and social impacts of bioenergy.          

The  BBEST conference tries to strike a balance among all these multiple  facets of the bioenergy challenge. First and foremost, however, its aim  is to give bioenergy visibility among young researchers and students,  let them know how important an issue it is and how fascinating the  career opportunities are that it offers. Twenty-one countries are  represented, some of the best researchers in the field are getting  together for a few days to present their results, network with their  colleagues, and, we hope, motivate young people. The Organizers are very  grateful to their colleagues, from the world over and from Brazil, who  are joining us in Campos do Jordão for the BBEST Conference.

As  Co-Chairman, it is my pleasure to thank the members of our International  Advisory, Program, and Local Committees whose suggestions and  dedication made possible the beautiful program that this Conference has  put together. Funding from FAPESP, CNPq, CAPES, and many company  sponsors made it possible to hold the meeting. The Secretariat, Profs.  Gláucia Souza and Luis Cortez, and the Treasurer, Prof. Heitor  Cantarella did a superb job of handling all the details. Prof. Hernan  Chaimovich, our Co-Chairman, was always there when needed. The Brazilian  Society of Biology and Biochemistry (SBBq) helped us all along,  together with the staff of FAPESP. Prof. Brito Cruz, from the very first  moment, when BBEST was nothing more than an interrogation mark, gave  his full support to the Organizers and, along the way, very sound  advice. On a personal note, I would like to thank my company, CEITEC SA  Semiconductors, for having allowed me to dedicate a small fraction of my  time to BBEST.
With my best wishes to all of you, I bid you welcome  to Brazil and to the First Brazilian BioEnergy Science and Technology  Conference.