IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i15p2851-d251220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Air Pollutant Emission Analysis of Brazilian Electricity Production Projections and Other Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Rafaella de Souza Henriques

    (Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering—Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais—Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
    Department of Applied Social Sciences—Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais—Av. Amazonas, 7675, 30510-000 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil)

  • Rodney Rezende Saldanha

    (Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering—Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais—Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
    Department of Electrical Engineering—Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais—Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil)

  • Lineker Max Goulart Coelho

    (Department of Civil Engineering—Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais—Av. Amazonas, 7675, 30510-000 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil)

Abstract

In the face of the population’s growing awareness about environmental degradation, air pollutant emissions from electricity production become a very relevant issue. Therefore, the present work aims to evaluate the greenhouse gases (GHG), NO x and SO 2 emissions in the Brazilian electricity production, using the expected capacity expansion from Ten-Year Energy Expansion Plan-2027, the current installed capacity of power generation and the electrical load factor. This study was based on data provided by official institutions that are responsible for the electricity sector as well as academic studies of the area. In order to obtain a better analysis of the most likely air pollutant emission values bounds, a Monte Carlo simulation was performed. In addition, the 2017 energy production emissions from Brazil, France, China, and the USA were evaluated and compared. The results indicate that non-renewable sources of energy have a negative environmental impact. In general, the emissions of CO 2 -eq and NO x per MWh are increasing according to Brazilian energy generation projections, but when compared with global indicator Brazil has an affordable electricity mix in terms of air pollutant emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Rafaella de Souza Henriques & Rodney Rezende Saldanha & Lineker Max Goulart Coelho, 2019. "An Air Pollutant Emission Analysis of Brazilian Electricity Production Projections and Other Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:15:p:2851-:d:251220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/15/2851/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/15/2851/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zerrin Günkaya & Alp Özdemir & Aysun Özkan & Müfide Banar, 2016. "Environmental Performance of Electricity Generation Based on Resources: A Life Cycle Assessment Case Study in Turkey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-14, October.
    2. Atilgan, Burcin & Azapagic, Adisa, 2016. "An integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of electricity generation in Turkey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 168-186.
    3. Raghava Kommalapati & Akhil Kadiyala & Md. Tarkik Shahriar & Ziaul Huque, 2017. "Review of the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Different Photovoltaic and Concentrating Solar Power Electricity Generation Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Murillo Vetroni Barros & Cassiano Moro Piekarski & Antonio Carlos De Francisco, 2018. "Carbon Footprint of Electricity Generation in Brazil: An Analysis of the 2016–2026 Period," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, June.
    5. Song, Qingbin & Wang, Zhishi & Li, Jinhui & Duan, Huabo & Yu, Danfeng & Liu, Gang, 2018. "Comparative life cycle GHG emissions from local electricity generation using heavy oil, natural gas, and MSW incineration in Macau," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2450-2459.
    6. Turconi, Roberto & Boldrin, Alessio & Astrup, Thomas, 2013. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of electricity generation technologies: Overview, comparability and limitations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 555-565.
    7. Islam Elsayed & Yoshiki Nishi, 2018. "A Feasibility Study on Power Generation from Solar Thermal Wind Tower: Inclusive Impact Assessment Concerning Environmental and Economic Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, November.
    8. Burcin Atilgan & Adisa Azapagic, 2016. "Assessing the Environmental Sustainability of Electricity Generation in Turkey on a Life Cycle Basis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guangjun Yang & Xiaoxiao Li & Li Ding & Fahua Zhu & Zhigang Wang & Sheng Wang & Zhen Xu & Jingxin Xu & Pengxiang Qiu & Zhaobing Guo, 2019. "CFD Simulation of Pollutant Emission in a Natural Draft Dry Cooling Tower with Flue Gas Injection: Comparison between LES and RANS," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-21, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Song, Cuihong & Gardner, Kevin H. & Klein, Sharon J.W. & Souza, Simone Pereira & Mo, Weiwei, 2018. "Cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions from dams in the United States of America," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 945-956.
    2. M. A. Parvez Mahmud & Nazmul Huda & Shahjadi Hisan Farjana & Candace Lang, 2018. "Environmental Impacts of Solar-Photovoltaic and Solar-Thermal Systems with Life-Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-21, September.
    3. António A. Martins & Marta Simaria & Joaquim Barbosa & Ricardo Barbosa & Daniela T. Silva & Cristina S. Rocha & Teresa M. Mata & Nídia S. Caetano, 2018. "Life cycle assessment tool of electricity generation in Portugal," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 129-143, December.
    4. Markéta Šerešová & Jiří Štefanica & Monika Vitvarová & Kristina Zakuciová & Petr Wolf & Vladimír Kočí, 2020. "Life Cycle Performance of Various Energy Sources Used in the Czech Republic," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Catalina Ferat Toscano & Cecilia Martin-del-Campo & Gabriela Moeller-Chavez & Gabriel Leon de los Santos & Juan-Luis François & Daniel Revollo Fernandez, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of a Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine with a Focus on the Chemicals Used in Water Conditioning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-24, May.
    6. Dianfa Wu & Zhiping Yang & Ningling Wang & Chengzhou Li & Yongping Yang, 2018. "An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model and AHP Weighting Uncertainty Analysis for Sustainability Assessment of Coal-Fired Power Units," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-27, May.
    7. Claudia Cristina Sanchez Moore & Luiz Kulay, 2019. "Effect of the Implementation of Carbon Capture Systems on the Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance of the Brazilian Electricity Matrix," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    8. Alizadeh, Sadegh & Avami, Akram, 2021. "Development of a framework for the sustainability evaluation of renewable and fossil fuel power plants using integrated LCA-emergy analysis: A case study in Iran," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1548-1564.
    9. Murillo Vetroni Barros & Cassiano Moro Piekarski & Antonio Carlos De Francisco, 2018. "Carbon Footprint of Electricity Generation in Brazil: An Analysis of the 2016–2026 Period," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, June.
    10. Hosseini, Seyed Mohsen & Kanagaraj, N. & Sadeghi, Shahrbanoo & Yousefi, Hossein, 2022. "Midpoint and endpoint impacts of electricity generation by renewable and nonrenewable technologies: A case study of Alberta, Canada," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 22-39.
    11. Aberilla, Jhud Mikhail & Gallego-Schmid, Alejandro & Stamford, Laurence & Azapagic, Adisa, 2020. "Design and environmental sustainability assessment of small-scale off-grid energy systems for remote rural communities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    12. Ramirez, A.D. & Boero, A. & Rivela, B. & Melendres, A.M. & Espinoza, S. & Salas, D.A., 2020. "Life cycle methods to analyze the environmental sustainability of electricity generation in Ecuador: Is decarbonization the right path?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Rebeka Kovačič Lukman & Vasja Omahne & Damjan Krajnc, 2021. "Sustainability Assessment with Integrated Circular Economy Principles: A Toy Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, March.
    14. Yilan, Gülşah & Kadirgan, M.A. Neşet & Çiftçioğlu, Gökçen A., 2020. "Analysis of electricity generation options for sustainable energy decision making: The case of Turkey," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 519-529.
    15. Gabriel Constantino de Lima & Andre Luiz Lopes Toledo & Leonidas Bourikas, 2021. "The Role of National Energy Policies and Life Cycle Emissions of PV Systems in Reducing Global Net Emissions of Greenhouse Gases," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Gabriela Shirkey & Megan Belongeay & Susie Wu & Xiaoguang Ma & Hassan Tavakol & Annick Anctil & Sandra Marquette-Pyatt & Rodney A. Stewart & Parikith Sinha & Richard Corkish & Jiquan Chen & Ilke Celik, 2021. "An Environmental and Societal Analysis of the US Electrical Energy Industry Based on the Water–Energy Nexus," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, May.
    17. Emad Abdelsalam & Feras Kafiah & Malek Alkasrawi & Ismael Al-Hinti & Ahmad Azzam, 2020. "Economic Study of Solar Chimney Power-Water Distillation Plant (SCPWDP)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-14, June.
    18. Gabriel Constantino & Marcos Freitas & Neilton Fidelis & Marcio Giannini Pereira, 2018. "Adoption of Photovoltaic Systems Along a Sure Path: A Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) Study Applied to the Analysis of GHG Emission Impacts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-28, October.
    19. Kavitha Shanmugam & Anju Baroth & Sachin Nande & Dalia M. M. Yacout & Mats Tysklind & Venkata K. K. Upadhyayula, 2019. "Social Cost Benefit Analysis of Operating Compressed Biomethane (CBM) Transit Buses in Cities of Developing Nations: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-22, August.
    20. Maria Laura Parisi & Melanie Douziech & Lorenzo Tosti & Paula Pérez-López & Barbara Mendecka & Sergio Ulgiati & Daniele Fiaschi & Giampaolo Manfrida & Isabelle Blanc, 2020. "Definition of LCA Guidelines in the Geothermal Sector to Enhance Result Comparability," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:15:p:2851-:d:251220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.