Integrated systems for the production of food, energy and materials as a sustainable strategy for decarbonization and land use: The case of sugarcane in Brazil

Abstract

The projected escalating use of renewables to meet the Paris Agreement goals has raised concerns about land-use pressures, particularly from biomass-based systems. This study introduces the concept of Integrated Food, Energy, and Materials Systems (IFEMS) as a strategy to optimize land-use efficiency for decarbonization. To evaluate the land-use efficiency of IFEMS and other renewable resource-based systems, a novel parameter termed decarbonization density (DD) is proposed, which aggregates all services that reduce GHG emissions and remove carbon from atmosphere per unit of land. A case study on an archetypical integral sugarcane utilization system in Brazil is analyzed, indicating that the simultaneous production of food, energy, and materials can synergistically aid decarbonization efforts. The estimated DD for the baseline scenario is 20 tCO₂e/ha, while in the innovative scenario (SC-innov), it rises to 145 tCO₂e/ha. Most of this increase stems from including the production of fermented meat as a substitute of beef, which accounts for three quarters of DD's value in SC-innov, indicating a high potential of this technology for contributing to decarbonization. These findings suggest that IFEMS may represent a land-use strategy at least as efficient as other renewable energy systems, with the potential to grow as biomass conversion technology advances into more complex systems. However, these advances also pose the challenge of integrating diverse product streams for different markets, which will likely require the coordination of multiple stakeholders within an industrial ecosystem rather than a single-actor model.