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Ensuring the environmental sustainability of energy production, including research and investment in renewable energy, can minimize the negative impact of fossil fuel use. According to the 2017 Brazilian national energy balance, biomass, a substrate for energy generation, represents approximately 23% of the national energy matrix. The state of Rio Grande do Sul currently imports 1.7 million metric tons of natural gas per day from Bolivia. Thus, the purpose of this study is to present the state's biomass, biogas and methane generation potential, considering agro-industry biomass residue (dairy and slaughterhouses), wine production, animal waste (cattle, poultry, sheep and horse), landfills and domestic wastewater treatment plants. The methodology consisted of three stages. First, a study was conducted to evaluate all possible sources of biomass in the state, along with relevant and reliable databases for each sector; second, on-site visits were carried out at the companies with the highest volumes of biomass to formalize and check the data. Finally, the theoretical biomass and biogas volumes from each source were calculated. The results indicate that Rio Grande do Sul can generate approximately 85 metric tons of biomass residue per year, around 9 million metric tons of biogas per day or 5 million metric tons of methane per day. Thus, the state can generate enough methane to supply all projected natural gas consumption in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering successive and costly increases in electricity rates, this article evaluates the generation of electricity from a photovoltaic system using solar energy, a renewable source. The solar photovoltaic system is installed at UNIVATES University Center, a public university in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and it is also connected to the electrical grid. Data related to the climatic conditions of the location, such as incident solar radiation, rainfall, and mean temperature, were obtained during the system's evaluation period and used along with bibliographic research on similar systems installed in southern Brazil. Our study quantified the energy produced over one calendar year (2014) and related it to the climatic variables and the conversion efficiency achieved by the system's photovoltaic modules. Our results show that there is both a strong relationship between the production of energy and climatic conditions and that the city, Lajeado, and the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, have good potential to supply energy using photovoltaic systems connected to the electrical grid. The horizontal global solar radiation average obtained in the study location was 4.14 kilowatts per square meter per day (kWh/m2/day), and the average monthly production of energy reached 243.93 kWh/m2/month, with a total of 2,927.10 kWh produced in 2014, achieving a monthly average conversion efficiency of 11.07%. This conversion efficiency is close to the value of 12.6% obtained in 2013 in a similar study of the same solar photovoltaic system conducted over a shorter time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper describes the development, performance and conclusions derived from three know-how and technology transfer projects to South American countries. The first project comprised a collaborative study by European and South American universities to find sustainable solutions for Chilean and Ecuadorian leather tanneries which had underachieving process performances. The second project consisted of investigations carried out in a Brazilian municipality to enhance its municipal solid waste management system. The final collaborative programme dealt with the initial identification, evaluation and registration of suspected contaminated sites in an industrial region of Chile. The detailed objectives, methods and procedures applied as well as the results and conclusions obtained in each of the three mentioned projects are presented, giving special attention to the organizational aspects and to the practical approach of each programme, concluding with their main advantages and disadvantages for identifying a set of qualitative and quantitative suggestions, and to establish transferable methods for future applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]