Decarbonizing the Legal Amazon with clean and renewable energy foresees investments of R$5 billion

Use of biofuels from palm oil is an alternative to decarbonize region with 212 locations outside the national energy system

São Paulo, June 2, 2023 - In order to have access to electricity, the population of isolated locations in the Brazilian Legal Amazon has to live with the burning of S500 diesel on a daily basis. Currently, 212 locations in the region are not connected to the National Interconnected System (SIN) and are served by thermoelectric plants powered mainly by fossil fuels.

With the aim of decarbonizing the Legal Amazon, the federal government is studying the launch of a program to deliver clean, renewable energy to quilombola, riverside and indigenous communities. The cost of this action is at least R$5 billion, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME).

For 15 years, Grupo BBF (Brasil BioFuels) has been providing a solution for the region: generating electricity from biodiesel and biomass from oil palm production.

Grupo BBF currently has 38 thermal power plants in the region, with a total generating capacity of 238 MW. Currently, 25 plants are in operation with the capacity to generate 86.8 MW, serving 140,000 people. As a result, Grupo BBF removes more than 106.4 million liters of fossil diesel from the Amazon each year and reduces the emission of around 250,000 tons of carbon equivalent into the atmosphere.

"We are the only company to operate 100% with B100 biodiesel as a substitute for fossil diesel on a commercial scale in the Isolated Systems. There are more than 200 locations in the northern region that belong to Isolated Systems, i.e. they are not connected to the National Interconnected Power Supply System. In these communities, there are small plants to supply electricity, most of which run on S500 diesel," explains Milton Steagall, CEO of Grupo BBF.

According to the executive, the Amazon is "intoxicated" by the burning of diesel used in transportation and to generate electricity for isolated communities. To give you an idea, S500 diesel, which is most commonly used to generate energy in the region, contains a high level of sulphur (500 mg/kg) and a high percentage of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), substances that have been proven to be carcinogenic. In addition, the fuel contributes to the occurrence of acid rain.

"Palm oil biodiesel contains no sulfur, emits no carcinogens and avoids_CO2 emissions, offering countless environmental, social and public health benefits. This product has proved to be a strategic solution to help clean up the region's matrix, decarbonize the world's lung and guarantee energy supply security," says Steagall, who has been studying the Amazon region's energy challenges since the early 2000s.

For him, the region's high rainfall rates and logistical difficulties make it impossible to produce solar or wind energy in many of these locations. "Oil palm production is a solution to the region's problems," he says.

Sustainable production, employment and income

Oil palm production in the region also helps to solve other problems faced by the population: the lack of jobs and income, as well as the occupation of previously deforested areas.

Cultivation of the plant follows one of the strictest pieces of legislation in the world, the Agroecological Zoning of Oil Palm, defined by the Federal Government in decree 7.172 of May 2010. According to the legislation, oil palm can only be grown in degraded areas in the region until December 2007. In all, 31 million hectares in Brazil are suitable for oil palm cultivation.

Due to the plant's characteristics, oil palm cultivation cannot be mechanized. "That's why we argue that as well as being a crop that recovers degraded areas of the Amazon, it's also a solution for generating jobs and income in the region. We will only have a fair country and be able to talk about stopping deforestation when we can offer jobs to this population. Currently, around 29.6 million people live in the Amazon region, according to the IBGE. It is essential to create job and income opportunities for this population, as long as the forest remains standing," says Steagall.

Grupo BBF stands out for being one of the largest employers in the Amazon region, with 6,000 direct jobs and 18,000 indirect jobs generated. The company has more than 75,000 hectares under oil palm cultivation in the states of Pará and Roraima and is the largest palm oil producer in Latin America. The expectation is to double the number of jobs generated in the coming years with the planting of an additional 100,000 hectares of oil palm in the region and the inauguration of the unprecedented biorefinery for the production of Green Diesel (HVO) and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

About Grupo BBF

Grupo BBF (Brasil BioFuels), a Brazilian company founded in 2008, is the largest palm oil producer in Latin America, with a cultivated area of over 75,000 hectares and a production of around 200,000 tons of oil per year. The company is a pioneer in creating sustainable solutions for generating renewable energy in isolated systems, with thermoelectric plants powered by biofuels produced in the region. Its agricultural activity recovers areas that were degraded until 2007 in the Amazon, following the Agroecological Zoning of Oil Palm (ZAE), approved by Decree 7.172 of the Federal Government, of May 7, 2010.

Grupo BBF has created an integrated business model in which it operates from the beginning to the end of the value chain - from sustainable oil palm cultivation, crude oil extraction, biofuel production, biotechnology to renewable energy generation - with assets totaling around R$2.1 billion and activities generating more than 6,000 direct jobs in the northern region of Brazil. Grupo BBF 's operations are located in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima and Pará, comprising 38 thermoelectric plants (25 in operation and 13 under implementation), 3 palm oil crushing units, a soybean extruder and a biodiesel industry.

The company is expanding its supply of biofuels and has signed partnerships for the production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), also called green diesel. The new sustainable fuels will be produced as of 2026 in the country's first Biorefinery, currently under construction in the Manaus Free Trade Zone.

BBF press office
imprensa@grupobbf.com.br

GBR Comunicação
Fernanda Domiciano / Vagner Magalhães