Localized nexus solutions could offer a global blueprint for agricultural waste
In the lush agricultural heartlands of Southern Brazil, a crisis is gradually building, as the region becomes a victim of its own success. The state of Paraná is a livestock powerhouse, home to massive dairy, pig and poultry operations that feed the world. However, this productivity comes with a considerable environmental price tag. Firstly, there’s the emitting of vast quantities of methane – a greenhouse gas roughly 80 times more potent than CO2 in the short term.
Then, at the local level, the stakes are just as high. A significant portion of animal manure waste runs off into the watershed of the Itaipu Binacional, the world’s second-largest hydroelectric plant. The nutrient-rich runoff fuels algae blooms (eutrophication) that can clog turbines and threaten the energy security of both Brazil and Paraguay.
This is a classic water–energy–food–environment (WEFE) nexus problem and so served as a valuable cross-country lesson at the 6th WEFE Nexus Policy webinar, Optimal livestock biogas networks for energy in southern Brazil, hosted by the CGIAR Policy Innovations Program.
The biomethane advantage
The conventional response to Paraná’s agricultural waste conundrum is to install biodigesters to turn manure into biogas, and use that gas to generate electricity. Essentially turning waste into watts. It is a solution deployed globally, often supported by heavy subsidies.
But a new analysis – led by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR), and CIBiogás (International Center for Renewable Energy – Biogas), and presented at the WEFE Nexus Policy webinar – has scrutinized this default assumption in the Brazilian context.
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