Sao Paulo plans R$30 million carbon capture pilot for sugarcane ethanol CCS project

Sao Paulo state has announced a R$30 million project to build Brazil's first pilot unit for capturing and storing carbon dioxide from sugarcane ethanol production. The center, called CTCCSBio, will be based at the University of Sao Paulo's Polytechnic School and run for five years. It aims to capture CO2 released during ethanol fermentation and inject it into deep geological formations for permanent storage. The project is a partnership between the state government, FAPESP, and private companies. It targets the biogenic CO2 that currently escapes during ethanol production, which is a significant source of emissions even though ethanol itself is considered renewable. If successful, the pilot could prove that sugarcane ethanol can achieve net-negative emissions through CCS. This is an early-stage pilot with no guarantee of commercial scale. The key questions are whether the geology in Sao Paulo state is suitable for permanent storage and whether the cost per ton of CO2 captured will be competitive with other carbon removal methods. The project's five-year timeline means results will not come quickly.