The Project wishes to qualify the use of energy in the industrial sector, by studying possibilities for the use of natural gas. The first results are due to come out in 2017.
The identification of industrial policies and strategies that lead to the development of conventional and unconventional markets for natural gas within the industrial segment, as well as studying and analysing arguments about the advantages and the efficiency of the use of natural gas in industry: these are the main aims of the project by the name of Producing Benchmark Studies about Natural Gas: Efficient Uses in the Industrial Sector, co-ordinated by professor Murilo Tadeu Werneck Fagá, of the Energy and Environment Institute of the University of São Paulo (IEE-USP). This initiative is part of the portfolio of projects of the Research Centre for Gas Innovation (RCGI), and shall run for an initial period of five years.
The intention is that of producing reference studies about the use of natural gas and the respective policies and tools attached to regulation, which could improve accessibility and promote the use thereof in national industry. The first stage of the project, which should be completed by the middle of 2017, shall study the potential of the different industrial subsectors.
“We want to know not only how much energy the industrial segment uses, but what this energy is used for”, says Mr Fagá. The second stage is that of addressing the standpoint of management: understanding what factors motivate the current patterns of behaviour in the Country, regarding use of energy. The final result shall be a large report qualifying the use of energy in the industrial segment and also looking into the many possibilities for the use of natural gas, and the advantages that natural gas brings, especially when used as a replacement for electricity, as access to electricity has become more and more of a problem.
“There shall be the production of indicators that represent objective classifications for the possibilities of use of gas within industry, starting out from a diagnosis about how much Brazil consumes in its industrial activities (in terms of energy) and also how much they could consume, and what advantages these new practices would bring from several different points of view: natural resources, environmental impact, operational costs and productivity.”
Apart from professor Fagá, the team also has the participation of researchers Alberto Fossa and Alexandre Gallo, engineers and researchers of the IEE, and also the academic collaboration of Edmilson Moutinho, also from the IEE.