Monday, May 5, 2008

Tufte

Check out Edward Tufte's stuff about presenting information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Tufte

His most famous book is called "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" and it basically talks about how to convey information effectively through graphics.

Interesting read for this summer when you aren't swamped with worked.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Rios Voadores

Rios Voadores

flying rivers in Brazil

water use impacts due to ethanol production

Jose_Moreira.pdf (application/pdf Object)

evapotranspiration brazil - Google Search

evapotranspiration brazil - Google Search: "]
POTENTIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION ESTIMATES FOR NORTHEAST BRAZIL USING ...

POTENTIAL EVAPOTRANSPIRATION ESTIMATES FOR NORTHEAST BRAZIL USING GOES-8 DATA. INTRODUCTION. The latent heat of evaporation appears in the energy budget ...

www.scielo.br/pdf/rbeaa/v4n3/v4n3a08.pdf

Penman Eqn

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6726337189037178189

(pg 18)

Alex Farrell clears things up

ERG Biofuel Analysis Meta-Model (EBAMM)

Monday, March 24, 2008

density vs. intensity

http://fbds.org.br/Apresentacoes/3_Luiz_Augusto_Cortez_UNICAMP.pdf

slide 56

yield by region

http://fbds.org.br/Apresentacoes/3_Luiz_Augusto_Cortez_UNICAMP.pdf slide 44

Logistics pics

http://fbds.org.br/Apresentacoes/3_Luiz_Augusto_Cortez_UNICAMP.pdf slides 20-30

Northeast yield numbers and yield by veg. cover

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T3Y-42M1DT2-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=f06df6c93ab449e32ebdb418859a2de6

total yield numbers for Brazilian sugarcane

http://fbds.org.br/article.php3?id_article=409 see the presentation by Weber Amaral

Yield numbers for Cerrado sugar cane (portuguese)

Cana-de-açúcar avança em Mato Grosso - 21/03/2008
>
> Local: São Paulo - SP
> Fonte: O Estado de S.Paulo
> Link: http://www.estado.com.br/
>
> Estado colhe a maior safra dos últimos seis anos
>
> Fabíola Salvador
>
> Os produtores de Mato Grosso se preparam para colher, a partir do início do
> próximo mês, a maior safra de cana-de-açúcar dos últimos seis anos. De
> acordo com números do Sindicato das Indústrias Sucroalcooleiras de Mato
> Grosso (Sindalcool-MT), serão processadas 15,84 milhões de toneladas de
> cana, o que resultará também na maior produção de álcool e açúcar desde o
> plantio da safra 2003/04.
>
> Na comparação com a safra passada, a área plantada com cana cresceu 8% no
> Estado. O diretor-executivo do Sindalcool-MT, Jorge dos Santos, garantiu,
> no entanto, que a floresta Amazônica não foi desmatada para dar lugar aos
> canaviais. "A cana foi plantada em áreas de pasto que estavam abandonadas",
> explicou.
>
> Ele lembrou que ainda há potencial para crescimento da produção de cana no
> Estado, já que na região do município de Alto Taquari cerca de dois milhões
> de hectares que antes eram destinados à pecuária de corte poderão ser
> convertidos para a cana. "Com a modernização da pecuária, outros segmentos
> poderão ocupar as áreas de pastagens", enfatizou.
>
> No município, uma nova usina com capacidade para esmagar três milhões de
> toneladas de cana ocupará uma área de 35 mil hectares a partir do ano que
> vem. Santos lembrou que, apesar de registrar recorde de produção, o
> crescimento sobre a safra 2007/08, que foi colhida até novembro do ano
> passado, será de apenas 6,1%.
>
> O crescimento na produção de cana no Estado também é justificado pela
> melhora das condições climáticas, que reduziram a produção nas últimas duas
> safras. "Foram dois anos de seca", disse o executivo. Na safra 2007/08, os
> produtores de Mato Grosso colheram 14,93 milhões de toneladas de cana. Do
> total de 216 mil hectares destinados à cultura na safra atual, 212,9 mil
> hectares serão destinados à produção de álcool e açúcar, e o restante, 3,15
> mil hectares serão destinados à produção de mudas, mostra o estudo que foi
> feito junto a 11 unidades produtoras.
>
> De acordo com previsões do sindicato, Mato Grosso produzirá 904 milhões de
> litros de álcool, entre anidro (376,14 milhões de litros) e hidratado (528,4
> milhões). Na safra passada, a produção total foi de 893,2 milhões de
> litros).
>
> A produção de açúcar deve somar 566 mil toneladas, crescimento na comparação
> com a safra passada, quando a produção foi de 536,2 mil toneladas. No
> mercado interno, Paraná, São Paulo, Goiás e Pará estão entre os destinos do
> açúcar e do álcool produzidos no Estado. No mercado externo, o açúcar é
> vendido para Ásia, África e Europa. Até o momento Mato Grosso não exportou
> álcool.
>
> Apesar do crescimento na produção, ele avaliou que o cenário não é positivo,
> porque no ano passado havia grande quantidade de álcool para ser exportado,
> cuja venda não se concretizou. Com isso houve excesso de oferta do produto
> no mercado, provocando a depreciação nos preços. "No ano passado tivemos
> álcool vendido na bomba a R$ 1,05, sendo que o ideal é o preço praticado na
> entressafra, que é em torno de R$ 1,60", disse. Para ele, faltam políticas
> públicas que permitam a armazenagem do produto em excesso durante a safra.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

New set of potentially useful links (mostly logistics)

maps of pipelines/terminals in each region
http://www.transpetro.com.br/ingles/negocios/dutosTerminais/mapaDutos.shtml

spreadsheet of capacity info...I can't read much but maybe you can? The numbers are in cubic meters so it could be useful!
http://www.transpetro.com.br/portugues/negocios/dutosTerminais/files/DutosTotalAnual.xls

http://www.transpetro.com.br/ingles/negocios/dutosTerminais/dutosTerminais.shtml
"Transpetro is authorized by the National Petroleum Agency to provide transport services by operating pipelines and terminals for crude, its byproducts and other compatible liquids. The pipeline grid covers 5,873.40 miles (9,789 kilometers) and 43 terminals (20 onshore and 23 shipping)."

We'll see about this:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2007-11-18-ethanolpipeline_N.htm
"Moving ethanol through a pipeline would cost 3 cents to 6 cents a gallon, which is at least competitive with existing shipping methods, Mears said."
This one has info about water use and pollution from ethanol plants:
http://www.energyjustice.net/ethanol/factsheet.html

and lots of links! These links go to some reasonably credible places (ie essays by environmental studies professors, or actual studies)
http://www.energyjustice.net/ethanol/basics/

lot's of biofuels resources

http://www.esa.org/science_resources/biofuelsResources.php

Friday, March 7, 2008

Brazil ethanol production projections

Ag ministry (see pages 78-79)
http://www.agricultura.gov.br/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/MAPA/PLANOS/PNA_2006_2011/PLANO%20NACIONAL%20DE%20AGROENERGIA%202006%20-%202011-%20INGLES_1_0.PDF


IEA (pg. 167)
http://www.iea.org/textbase/nppdf/free/2004/biofuels2004.pdf

Thursday, March 6, 2008

new new macedo ain't even came out yet

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V22-4RKDHMM-1&_user=4420&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000059607&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=4420&md5=1f14321923586609b89120fa02ee35ff

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Economist article about Ethanol and Water Use

This article about the huge water consumption associated with ethanol appears the latest issue of the Economist.

http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10766882

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Paper with some lifecycle GWP and water #s for Sugarcane

http://www.unicamp.br/fea/ortega/energy/Pippo.pdf

Assessment of greenhouse gas emissions... in Brazil

This is the paper I was sharing last week that has all the numbers for producing ethanol from sugar cane in Brazil.

"Assessment of greenhouse gas emissions in the production and use of fuel ethanol in Brazil":
http://www.unica.com.br/i_pages/files/gee3.pdf

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Summary of the meeting with Arpad

1:26 PM Lindsay: how'd the meeting with arpad go yesterday? me: really good1:27 PM i left it feeling a little more confident about the scope of our work a few things we talked about: -he thinks we should do GWP and H2O1:28 PM -he's really adamant about at least doing a crude analysis of water impacts Lindsay: ok good to know me: -we decided to stop our analysis where the fuel enters the gas tank Lindsay: woah ok cool1:29 PM me: -the start of our analysis is a little more complex Lindsay: yeah...especially if we wanna consider water impacts during growth of biomass me: -probably we could do some hypothetical analysis of land conversion uh huh to clarify:1:30 PM if a refinery draws on fields from a 10k radius we can model the GWP and water impacts of different land cover types i.e. what if the whole circle in forest? what if it is pasture land? we could do continuous modeling or we could do discrete scenarios1:31 PM Lindsay: hmmmm me: the same goes for logistics from refinery to tank 100% pipeline? 50% pipeline 50% truck? how far? etc.1:32 PM another we discussed was how to analyze the production/biorefinery phase he thinks we should just review the lit (i.e. early LCAs) he thinks this has been studied heavily as compared to some of our other interests1:33 PM the final thing we talked about was ag. production data. he'd like us to try to synthesize info. from the brazilian i-o table with data on sugar production from brazilian ethanol lcas1:34 PM i'm going to try to get some raw data from sergio, arpad's former student and brazilian lca expert Lindsay: ok me: that's the summary i should post this on our blog any thoughts?1:35 PM Lindsay: it still sounds pretty big and do we still need to decide where to start the analysis? i mean the initial limit me: i think with land conversion1:37 PM Lindsay: so you feel better about the scope because the steps along the way are more defined, not because the scope was narrowed? me: that's probably right1:38 PM also because arpad thought it was reasonable Lindsay: ok i see yeah it still seems huge but there are 5 of us and if we're able to use some of the refinery stuff just from the literature instead of doing it ourselves, that helps a lot1:39 PM me: right so it would mean most of our work would be on land conversion+production and logistics 2-3 people/focal area also, he wants to meet with us in the last week before the midterm report is due to make sure that this still seems reasonable1:40 PM so it isn't set in stone yet anyways... i've got to take off now time to bike to class see you tomorrow

Friday, February 22, 2008

pre refining logistics radii maps

infinity bioenergy has maps posted showing a 10km harvest radius around their mills

http://www.infinitybio.com.br/iniframe_e.html

One logistics model

Infinity Bioenergy is a big new start-up with foreign investors. They have a pretty detailed website which describes how they plan to use different post refinery logistics than business as usual. More here:

http://www.infinitybio.com.br/iniframe_e.html

Thursday, February 21, 2008

good stats on brazilian ethanol

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V2W-4PHJH12-3&_user=4420&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000059607&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=4420&md5=1168c9e4091d7f57ae67209f2a0d6e86

logistics

this is an older article but seems to outline the way they currently do things.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=108&sid=05c0332e-3ce6-4998-a1ff-6ae64eef5a67%40sessionmgr107

Lindsay's Logistics List

Has a good summary of conditions in Brazil for ethanol and the history of its alcohol program
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/articles/2006/05energy_sandalow/sandalow_20060522.pdf

some discussion of global ethanol market, and brazil’s need to improve logistics.
http://www.bettersugarcane.org/newsletter/?page_id=27


http://commercecan.ic.gc.ca/scdt/bizmap/interface2.nsf/vDownload/IMI_8523/$file/X_8977524.DOC


http://www.ethanolrfa.org/resource/cellulosic/



http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31249/story.htm
"Just to give you an idea, 600 million liters a year would require 20,000 tanker trucks to move it."
Gives some logistic numbers, for exports, etc.

www.energy.ca.gov/mtbe/documents/2001-07-26_SCHREMP_AT_CARB.PPT
this is about CA, not brazil, but has some logistic points.











http://research.utoledo.edu/docs/Brazil%20Webinar/Jose_presentation.ppt#263,5,Slide 5










research.utoledo.edu/docs/Brazil%20Webinar/Jose_presentation.ppt
link to above presentation

from cgee presentation:

From Petrobras presentation:

Brazilian IO analysis abstract

The paper isn't published yet, so I can't post the link. I'll send the whole thing by email.


Ecological Footprint Applied to the Input-Output Model
of the Brazilian Economy
Sérgio Pacca
spacca@usp.br
Escola de Arte Ciências e Humanidades
Universidade de São Paulo
Abstract
This paper applies the ecological footprint method to the Brazilian economic input-output (IO) model. The footprint method calculates the amount of land required to support economic activities and absorb the wastes they generate. In the case of IO models, the footprints are allocated to sectors corresponding to distinct activities within the economy. The Brazilian IO table is available from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). The footprint assessment, which is used as a basis for this study, is available from the Global Footprint Network (GFN). The IO-footprint model is produced in a spreadsheet, which allows the user to trace back the assumptions and data sources used to build the model. The analysis determines the ecological footprint intensity of 42 Brazilian economic sectors and can be used to develop more sustainable manufacturing processes. The assessment’s results show which sectors have
the greatest footprint based on per R$ 1 million and their total annual output. The dairy products industry has the highest footprint per R$ 1 million of final demand, whereas the steel mill sector has the highest footprint when the total annual industrial output of each sector is considered. The model construct may be used to identify the sectors that contribute the most to the final footprint of each industry. This information is a starting point for companies concerned with sustainable manufacturing and interested in the life cycle assessment of their products and services.
Keywords:
input-output, ecological footprint, sustainable manufacturing

Maps of sugarcane extent and expansion

page with satellite assessment of sugarcane plantations: http://www.dsr.inpe.br/mapdsr/

Plans for expansion of brazilian biofuels

This presentation summarizes an assessment of land suitable for new ethanol production http://www.feagri.unicamp.br/energia/ABIMAQ/expprodalcool.pdf

Welcome to our project blog

post article links and summaries here