Scenarios and prospects of solid biofuel use in Brazil

Abstract Sustainability is a major goal for the country development without negative effects on climate change, allied to scarcity and instability in the fossil fuels prices, makes attractive the use of several agricultural, forestry and industrial biomass which may undergo combustion processes for the production of renewable energy, either in its in natural form, pressed into dense pellets or briquettes, or after thermochemical conversion through gasification, pyrolysis, liquefaction, carbonization, and torrefaction. The aim of the current research was to identify the major environmental, economic and social impacts arising from the solid fossil fuels, as well as introduce a technical approach to address the scenario of the main energy crops produced in Brazil, wastes arising from the same, their quantification, and alternatives to using such wastes in the solid biofuels production. Moreover, it was intended to describe the current national and global market, policies, advantages, and challenges by using biofuels, in comparison with fossil fuels.