Bioenergy Program

Bioenergy is an important clean energy alternative and Brazil stands out as the world´s most intensive user of bioethanol as an alternative to gasoline for powering transport. The Brazilian experience has shown that sugarcane is an extremely viable crop for the production of bioenergy. The total planted area of sugarcane in Brazil today is around 7 million hectares. This accounts for only 2% to 3% of the total area devoted to agriculture.

The BIOEN, FAPESP Bioenergy Research Program has three main goals: increasing sugarcane productivity using molecular biology; discovering the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of bioenergy production; and generating knowledge to assure Brazil´s position among world leaders in bioenergy research and industry.

The program supports 56 basic research projects and is applied to sustainable production of biofuels based on sugarcane ethanol.

Through partnerships with companies, the research agenda includes biomass production and processing, biofuels production, engines, ethanol-chemistry applications and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of this production.

www.fapesp.br/en/bioen

bioenfapesp.org