1. Introduction
Sugar cane cultivation was established during the colonization of Brazil by Portugal. Brazil’s geographical and climatic conditions are highly suitable for the growth of sugar cane, which is mainly processed into sugar and bioethanol. Additionally, heat and electricity are produced through burning bagasse in steam boilers. The oil crisis, that began in the early 1970s and culminated in 1979, prompted the Brazilian government to launch the Brazilian alcohol program (Pró-Álcool) in 1975, to produce ethanol for fuel, in an effort to become less dependent on fossil oil imports, which have reduced since 1989 [
1]. After committing to the Paris Agreement in 2015, the Brazilian government launched the RenovaBio program in 2017, which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 43% compared with the emissions in 2005, by 2030, through the introduction of carbon dioxide emission certificates [
2,
3]. Although bioethanol was established to counter high oil prices, growing awareness of climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gases is likely to result in ongoing strong demand for alcohol as a fuel in Brazil [
3]. Consequently, in 2018, approximately 33.1 billion L of ethanol were produced, including 30.3 billion L for use as fuel [
4].
In response to past high oil prices, Brazil’s total annual sugar cane production increased from 79.8 million tons in 1970 to 620 million tons in 2018–2019. Because of the increased demand for production capacities, new sugar cane processing plants have been built between 2004 and 2019 [
5,
6]. In 2019, 343 sugar cane processing plants were operating in Brazil [
7].
Most ethanol mills that have been built in the last two decades can also produce surplus electrical energy, which is generated from the steam that results from burning bagasse. Consequently, the electrical energy contribution from bagasse combustion to the Brazilian grid rose from 7.9 TWh/a in 2009 to 21.5 TWh/a in 2018 [
8,
9]. Contrary to the positive effect of reduced carbon dioxide emissions from biofuels related to fossil fuels, sugar cane cultivation can increase the deforestation in Brazil, which has a negative impact on the climate and native communities [
10,
11]. Energy crop cultivation on the landside is competing with food and consumables production and residential areas [
12]. Producing ethanol or biogas out of microalgal biomass and waste from industrial agriculture may be an approach to counteract deforestation. In Brazil, about 40 TWh/a of electrical energy could be generated from biogas converted from landfills, wastewater treatment, vinasse, cattle-, pig-, and poultry manure [
13]. Biogas or ethanol production from microalgae would shift bioenergy production to the sea, leading, for example, to new food production capacity on the fertile soil, but these techniques need to be further developed to reach market maturity [
14,
15,
16]. Energy cane can be cultivated on marginal soil for ethanol and biogas production. Thereby, fertile soil capacities would be released [
17,
18].
To accomplish efficient ethanol production from sugar cane, second-generation ethanol processes must be used, because of the high cellulose content in sugar cane. Yeasts in industrial ethanol production lack the enzyme expression necessary to degrade cellulose to glucose. In second-generation ethanol production, cellulose-degrading enzymes are added during a hydrolyzation step prior to fermentation. Since 2015, second-generation ethanol has been produced from sugar cane waste in Brazil, and in 2018, approximately 25 million L were produced from cellulose [
4]. Biogas could be produced complementary to second-generation ethanol from sugar cane, as it has a high fiber content, including cellulose, which can also be degraded to methane during biogas fermentation [
18,
19].
In Brazil, the possibility of using biogas for electricity production or as biofuel had largely been overlooked until 2010, when the first sugar cane processing plants were also used for energy generation. Approximately 95% of the biogas produced in Brazil is landfill gas from urban waste digestion, and this means that agricultural waste and energy crops such as energy cane represent major unexploited sources for biogas production [
20]. Industrial biogas processes are well established, especially in Germany, where the first biogas plants were constructed in the 1980s to use manure for energy generation. Biogas consists mainly of methane (50–75%) and carbon dioxide (25–45%) [
21]. Since 1992, the amount of biogas plants in Germany rose from 139 to 9444 plants in 2018, and the feed of biomass for biogas production, especially maize silage, increased [
22]. In 2018, approximately 29.4 TWh/a were produced from biogas, representing 4.5% of the total energy generation in Germany [
23].
The feasibility of the anaerobic digestion of byproducts from sugar cane processing into sugar and bioethanol has already been demonstrated by studies on the biogas potential of the waste materials vinasse, filter cake, bagasse and straw [
24,
25,
26,
27]. However, to date, the biogas potential of the entire sugar cane plant has not been sufficiently investigated. In the past, for bioethanol production, the goal had been to maximize the sugar content of cane, which is inconsistent with producing cane that meets the biomass needs of biogas production. Since the 1970s, however, sugar cane breeds with increased biomass yields, so-called energy cane, have been developed for energy production [
17]. The cultivation of energy cane can lead to up to 2.5 times higher yields of dry matter per hectare (68.4 t
DM/ha) compared with conventional sugar cane (27.6 t
DM/ha) [
18]. The increased yield of biomass per hectare also boosts the energy amount that can be obtained per hectare.
Several aspects, such as the organic loading rate, technical challenges and the specific biogas yield, must be considered when changing the feed source of a biogas process. Since the energy cane harvest is seasonal and biogas processes must be fed continuously, conservation of the cane is essential for a stable biogas process. This requires examining whether energy cane can be ensiled, like the energy crop maize, which is predominant in Germany. Problems regarding the process performance must also be resolved: for example, the high fiber content of energy cane may lead to flotation layers in the biogas plant that hinder the mixing process [
18,
28,
29]. Furthermore, the high lignin content in energy cane may lower the biogas potential if no pretreatment is applied, because the anaerobic degradability of lignin is poor [
29,
30].
The novelty of this study is the investigation of the ensiling of the entire energy cane crops for conservation and the determination of the biogas potential to compare its area-related energy yield with that of modern ethanol production in Brazil. Published data on energy cane conversion to biogas are low, and there are only a few concepts known to establish energy cane related biogas production.
The main objectives of this study are (i) demonstrating the feasibility of energy cane ensiling to provide year-round biogas feed for biogas production in batch tests and (ii) in a continuous biogas process, (iii) comparing the area related energy yield of biogas and first- and second-generation ethanol production from energy cane, (iv) introduction of a concept for decentralized biogas production.
4. Discussion
Biogas was produced successfully from the whole energy cane plant in batch tests and in the continuous process, even after ensiling the energy cane. The conservation of energy cane over six months, which is necessary to ensure a continuous year-round feed of the biogas process, was successful. The high biogas losses through ensiling after four months with 6–16% according to Baserga or 13–22% according to the batch test of non-ensiled EC, and six months with 20% according to Baserga or 27% according to the batch test of non-ensiled EC represent peak values; the mean values were not determined. By comparison, silage losses from the well-established energy and forage crop maize result in 12% lower biogas yields at the industrial scale in Germany [
34]. The high losses of biogas potential caused by ensiling the sugar cane may be reduced by optimizing the ensiling process through, for example, the application of silage additives [
37,
38]. Nevertheless, the average silage losses for energy cane ensiling must be determined in the field.
Batch tests of the ensiled energy cane (lot A) indicated that it had lower biogas potential (10 g
FM: 417 L
N/kg
VS; 15 g
FM: 485 L
N/kg
VS) than was observed during the stable continuous process (also lot A, mean: 559 L
N/kg
VS) [
36]. The batch tests on the non-ensiled energy cane of lot B revealed a higher biogas potential (599 L
N/kg
VS) than what had been calculated theoretically according to the method of Baserga (555 L
N/kg
VS) [
34]. This may be attributable to the microleakage of the glass eudiometers, which would allow air to enter, leading to overestimation of the biogas potential or underestimation of the methane potential when methane concentration would have been measured [
39]. Compared with the automatic methane potential test system (AMPTS), which works similarly to the MilliGascounter, the biogas potential examined by eudiometers can be twice as high [
40]. The eudiometers used for batch testing indicated only the potential of biogas production, and not that of methane production. The batch tests suffered from high standard deviation, maybe due to low sample homogeneity. As the entire crop was used for the tests and cane straw and stalks digestion lead to different methane yields (sugar cane straw approx. 230–260 L
N/kg
VS, sugar cane stalks 300–350 L
N/kg
VS [
27,
41]), sample homogeneity is rather important, but on the same side hard to achieve, even though the samples were mixed and shredded.
Yeast activities in sugar cane silage may reduce the soluble carbohydrates content and lead to losses of DM. The addition of 1.0–1.5%
FM NaOH may support lactic bacteria and increase the digestibility value of dry matter by improving the digestibility of neutral detergent fiber [
31,
32,
42]. Furthermore, increased lactic acid concentrations may inhibit ethanol fermentation [
43]. Nevertheless, the addition of NaOH to the ensiling process did not show an improved biogas potential in batch tests. This could also be caused by the high standard deviation. The continuous process provides a more reliable value than the batch test does, because it is closer to the technical upscaling application; the microbiome adapts to the substrate composition over time, and the biogas volume was measured by a MilliGascounter (Dr.-Ing. RITTER Apparatebau, Bochum, Germany), which is less susceptible to false positive results than eudiometers are. However, leakage of the MilliGascounter tubing can lead to false negative results and the consequent underestimation of biogas potential.
The anaerobic fermentation of methane from energy cane must produce an energy yield comparable to conventional ethanol production for biogas to be practicable, especially in view of the currently booming second-generation ethanol production. In Brazil, an average of 6280 L/ha of first-generation ethanol with 36.7 MWh/ha energy, based on the lower heating value of ethanol, can be produced from sugar cane [
44]. Through second-generation ethanol production, an additional 4572 l/ha (26.7 MWh/ha) can be produced [
29]. This totals a production of 63.4 MWh/ha from sugar cane.
To reveal the potential of biogas production from the energy cane, its area-related energy yield was calculated. No area-related crop yields were given for the tested energy cane, so the theoretical energy yield, as shown in
Table 5, was calculated on the basis of the crop yield from two different studies (dos Santos et al. and Kim and Day) and the minimum and mean biogas potentials determined in this work [
18,
29]. Neither energy consumption nor product losses were considered with respect to biogas or ethanol production.
With respect to the average specific gas production in the period of days 574–593, the biogas potential was reduced by 27% compared with the batch test results for non-ensiled energy cane digestion (599 L
N/kg
VS). According to the biogas potential calculated from the energy cane composition based on the method of Baserga, the loss would be approximately 20% after six months of ensiling [
34]. Supplementation of macronutrients and trace elements had a positive effect on process stability.
The energy yields per hectare from total ethanol and biogas production out of energy cane are shown in
Table 4. The energy potential from biogas production, based on the data of Kim and Day, was slightly lower when assuming the minimum biogas potential. In all other cases, however, biogas production from energy cane was found to result in a superior energy yield per hectare compared with ethanol production, including second-generation ethanol production. Silage losses (assumed to be 12–20%) were neglected in the calculation (
Table 5), because only peaks were evaluated instead of the average. Consequently, prior to application, they must be validated in the field.
Based on the calculations, sugar cane exhibited a lower potential for biogas than for ethanol. Since the calculations for biogas energy yield from sugar cane were based on the specific biogas potential for energy cane, the calculations should be repeated for the as-yet unidentified biogas potential of the continuous anaerobic fermentation of conventional sugar cane. The batch test fermentation of ensiled Australian sugar cane stalks yielded 300–350 L
N/kg
VS methane [
41]. In comparison, the results of the continuous ensiled energy cane fermentation (242 L
N/kg
VS) were lower. Different plant composition, ensiling strategies, inoculum, conditions for growth and the poor comparability of batch tests and continuous processes may influence the methane potential of a substrate [
33,
41,
45,
46]. Seeing the influence of local conditions (e.g., soil properties, cane breeds, climate), the need for data on methane potential becomes clear.
In comparison with methane potential of other substrates with high lignocellulose content, like wheat straw (237–269 L
N/kg
VS) and miscanthus (247 l/kg
VS;278.7 L/kg
VS), the results of energy cane (242 l
N/kg
VS) are of a similar magnitude [
47,
48,
49]. Compared with energy cane, the average methane yield from anaerobic maize silage digestion is comparatively higher, at approximately 340 L
N/kg
VS, but higher crop yields from energy cane may compensate for its lower methane potential [
21,
50]. Between 2013 and 2017, the average maize silage yield in Germany was approximately 16.2 t
DM/ha (assuming 33%
DM/FM and 95%
VS/DM), resulting in 5223 m
3N/ha of methane with 52.0 MWh/ha energy, based on the lower heating value of methane [
21,
51]. If biogas technology is applied to Brazilian maize silage yields (17.4–28.2 t
DM/ha), a production between 55.9 and 90.6 MWh/ha can be expected (assuming 95%
VS/DM) [
21,
52]. Although the Brazilian maize yields can possibly be improved in the future through further industrialization, the prospects for energy cane as biogas substrate are not diminished, because, compared with maize silage fermentation, the theoretical biogas energy yields per hectare from energy cane are 1.5 to 2.9 times higher than those of maize silage, and the yields from sugar cane are of a similar magnitude. Despite the promising data regarding biogas production from energy cane in
Table 5, the results still need to be confirmed at the industrial scale in the field.
To establish a stable energy cane biogas industry, production technology must be economical. Furthermore, a thorough understanding of the technologies and their advantages and disadvantages is important. A comparison of the production schemes of biogas and first- and second-generation ethanol is shown in
Figure 5.
Due to the harvest periods, ethanol mills cannot run year-round [
29]. Transportation of the seasonally harvested energy cane to the ethanol mill accounts for up to 75% of the bioethanol production costs [
53]. The average distance that sugar cane must be transported to the ethanol mills varies between 25 and 40 km [
53,
54]. For first-generation ethanol production, the sugar cane/energy cane plants are washed prior to sugar milling, producing sugar juice as the product and bagasse as the by-product. The bagasse can either be used for heat and surplus energy production, or it can be enzymatically hydrolysed in the second-generation ethanol process. The sugar juice and the glucose containing hydrolysate are then fermented into ethanol by yeast and finally distilled. Bagasse, filter cake, and vinasse can be used as fertilizer or fed into a biogas plant [
25,
26,
27].
For biogas production, the energy cane must be chopped into small pieces to improve its availability for the microorganisms. The chopped cane is ensiled for conservation. Biogas is produced from the silage, and then it is compressed and purified. The digestate of the biogas process can be used as fertilizer. When comparing the biogas process with first- and second-generation ethanol processes, several challenges are evident for establishing the biogas industry. Increasing energy cane yields per hectare may overcome these challenges in the future, because a more-sophisticated second-generation ethanol process is needed for efficient ethanol production, which might be more difficult to handle [
15,
17,
18]. Since the second-generation ethanol process is still under development, biogas processes may be a promising alternative or supplement, especially due to the high theoretical biogas energy yield per hectare. The implementation of energy cane–based biogas technology in Brazil would enable year-round compressed biogas (CBG) production (and employment). The produced CBG could be used as fuel for vehicles, for cooking, or for industrial processes. CBG can be used instead of diesel fuel for heavy-duty vehicles and thereby reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the costs for energy cane cultivation and transport, especially in view of the carbon dioxide certificates that will be introduced as part of the RenovaBio program [
55,
56].
With “Farm
2CBG,” the authors propose a possible concept for biogas distribution, as shown in
Figure 6.
Since the investment costs for upgrading to biogas production decrease with the increasing size of the biogas plant, the economic efficiency, especially for small to medium-sized biogas plants, can be improved through a joint biogas processing plant [
57]. In the Farm
2CBG concept, each farm supplies the biomass for a single biogas plant. Therefore, the energy cane is ensiled and stored at the farms close to the biogas plant. The remaining digestate can be used as a fertilizer for energy cane cultivation. This creates a material cycle in agriculture. After desulfurization and dehumidification, the biogas is quantified and injected into a low-pressure pipeline, that connects surrounding biogas plants with the gas processing plant. Thus, the substrate transport distances can be kept low. At the central plant, the biogas can then be purified to achieve higher methane concentrations and compressed using renewable energy sources. The processed gas is then filled into a central gas storage and transported by pipelines or tank trucks as CBG to distributors and customers. Due to the centralization of gas processing, small biogas plants or a waste digester may be integrated. Participating farmers, as suppliers, are paid according to the amount of biogas injected into the system. The concept presents an opportunity for biogas production in rural areas, and consumption in urban areas.
To realize the concept, several factors must be considered, such as the economic efficiency of the concept, the burden of investment costs, and biogas plant design. For example, farms with an area of 1000 ha or more represent the largest share (60%) of total sugar cane production in Brazil [
58]. Using the substrate of 1000 ha for a single biogas plant would result in a very large biogas plant (4.9 MW
el). By comparison, in Germany, 500 kW
el biogas plants with combined heat and power units are the standard. If such a scale were adapted to energy cane feeding on the basis of the parameters in
Table 6, an approximately 100 ha cultivation area and a fermenter with a capacity of 3300 m
3 would be required (producing 1.35 MWh on the basis of the lower heating value of methane).
For example, a single biogas plant for a 1000 ha farm would be over 30,000 m3 in size.
To simplify the construction of biogas plants, several smaller plants could be built. The construction of biogas plants adjacent to farms would reduce the transport distances. Assuming a square outline of a 1000 ha farm, an edge length of 3.33 km can also be assumed. Even in the worst-case scenario (positioning the biogas plants at the corners of the farm), the maximum transport distance would be 6.66 km (73–83% less than the average in ethanol production). The farm design is highly dependent on local circumstances, and thus, the given assumptions must be checked on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, the biogas and ethanol production from energy cane should be compared based on life cycle assessments after validation of the given results in the field. In addition, to produce biogas from energy cane, technical applications must be adapted to the new substrate; for instance, sand separators can be implemented to avoid the washing step (which would result in a loss of substrate and thus energy), and special mixers can be used to avoid floating layers. Future upgrades notwithstanding, the present results give an impressive first overview of the potential for biogas technology in Brazil.