Análise da produção de etanol visando soluções para melhorar a eficiência econômica e ambiental

Abstract

The Brazilian ethanol industry since the beginning has had its development relied on governmental incentives. The first program created was the National Program of Alcohol that was the first to provide significant results in the ethanol industry. The most recent was the RenovaBio program. It was created in 2016 and aimed to foster the ethanol industry development in order to fulfill the agreement at COP21. Currently, the ethanol is produced on large scale by more than 300 companies located all over the Brazilian territory. Even though the ethanol industry is well consolidated, it has been facing financial issues in the last years and such issues resulted in the bankruptcy of some companies. This situation represents a problem because this industry is considered relevant in both aspects, economic and social for Brazil. In addition, it is expected an expressive increase in the ethanol demand in the next years. Therefore, it is essential to provide a forecast based on historical ethanol production data in order to evaluate if the Brazilian companies will be able to supply future demand. Another interesting factor is to study possibilities that can optimize these companies so they will be able to increase ethanol production, reduce costs and explore new markets, such as the carbon credits market. As a consequence, it will be possible to improve the financial conditions of companies that produce ethanol in Brazil.