Biorefinery study of availability of agriculture residues and wastes for integrated biorefineries in Brazil

• The focus was lignocellulosic agricultural residues and animal wastes to energy.
• The availability of residues and generation potential index generated in Brazil was calculated.
• The sugarcane has the highest agronomic availability, reaching 157 million tons of fresh material.
• The estimated reuse potential of sugarcane was 19.6 million tons (dry basis).
• The values of agronomic availability followed were at residues of soybeans, rice, maize, orange.

Brazil has a great potential for use renewable raw materials in biorefineries. It is one of the largest producers of agricultural and animal commodities, which produce large amounts of residues and wastes. These agricultural residues and animal waste can be effectively transformed to energy and other products in systems similar to a ethanol refinery where an integrated process involves conversion for biomass into fuel, energy and chemicals, integrated in the context of a biorefinery. The objective of this work is the determination of the actual availability of main agricultural residues and animal wastes generated in Brazil and of their generation potential index and their prospects for 2020. The results indicate that the sugarcane has the highest agronomic availability, reaching 157 million tons of fresh material and an estimated reuse potential of 19.6 million tons (dry basis), followed by soybeans, rice, maize, orange, wheat, cotton, cassava and tobacco.