Estimativa das emissões de enxofre pelos sistemas isolados - geradores à diesel - na bacia amazônica central

Abstract

The amazon forest represents one-third of the world rainforest and plays an important role on the carbon stock, hydrological cycle, biodiversity and the Earth energy balance. In the last decade, the economic development in the Northern region of Brazil boosted the energy demand, which increased the need for small electrical energy generation units, so-called isolated systems. Diesel is the main fuel used by those systems and this study presents preliminary estimates on the amount of sulfur emitted to the atmosphere by them. Fuel consumption data from 2013 to 2016 were used as well as submicrometer sulfate aerosols data measured at the Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) station. The study area was focused on the ATTO upwind trajectories. Inside the study area 138 generator units were identified, from which 68,8% use diesel as their main fuel. In total, those units consumed at least 2.049.399,3 m³ of diesel, totalizing an emission of 3.135,6 tons of sulfur to the atmosphere in a scenario where only S1800 diesel was used, and 871 tons of sulfur when only S500 diesel was used. There is also a seasonal behavior on fuel consumption, in other words, during the dry season (August - October) more diesel is consumed compared to the wet season (February - May). No direct interference was found at the sulfate aerosols measured at the ATTO station, however, it is possible that the sulfate background level in the region are impacted by those emissions.