Biometano por km² e por pessoa: O gás está onde a gente não está

Cerejo, Lucas Nakamura

No. 055 Energy · biomass Biogas on the ground 1/5

Biomethane per km² and per person

The gas is where the people are not

Record, downloads and citation

Plate with three municipal maps of São Paulo and a chart. The first shows biomethane per km² in greens, darker in the north and centre of the state. The second shows biomethane per inhabitant, from cream to dark brown: the interior is dark and Greater São Paulo, the coast and the Ribeira Valley are pale; a callout shows the capital at 0.013 m³ per inhabitant per day. The third shows municipalities in four shades of green by the quarter of the state’s potential they belong to: 25 municipalities in the first quarter, 43 in the second, 80 in the third and 470 in the last. The chart is the concentration curve of the potential, with points at 25, 68 and 148 municipalities. In the panel, bars show the six municipalities with the highest potential per km², led by Ariranha. — Fig. 055 São Paulo State (SP) EPSG:4674 Source: CP2B (Unicamp), IBGE

São Paulo’s residues could yield 16.9 million m³ of biomethane a day at the accessible level of the CP2B method. Divided by the population, that is 0.38 m³ per person per day. But the gas does not live where people live. Per km², the potential is densest in the sugarcane north: Ariranha reaches 1,326 m³ a day for each km². Per inhabitant, the leaders are small municipalities full of cane, such as Borá, with 41 m³ per person per day, while the capital, with the largest urban potential, stands at 0.013. The potential is also concentrated: 25 municipalities hold a quarter of the total, 68 hold half and 148 three quarters. Plate 050 shows how much each municipality has; this one shows how much that weighs on the ground and per person. First plate of the collection “Biogas on the ground”.

Technical record · downloads · citation

At a glance

Layers

municipios polygon 645 municipalities: potential by group and source, per km² and per inhabitant, quarter of the potential, largest non-cane source and distances to infrastructure
gasodutos_transporte line 13 existing transmission gas pipelines in and around SP
gasodutos_distribuicao line Networks of 8 gas distributors in and around SP
pontos_entrega point 62 existing gas delivery points
linhas_transmissao line 493 basic-grid transmission lines (230 kV or more)
subestacoes point 185 basic-grid substations
plantas_biometano point 9 ANP biomethane plants, at the municipality
gd_biogas point ANEEL biogas distributed generation summed by municipality (24)
regioes_intermediarias polygon 11 intermediate geographic regions
limite_estadual polygon State boundary

Metadata

Sources: CP2B (Unicamp) — biogas and biomethane potential by municipality, method v5.1 (2026)
IBGE — 2022 Population Census: census tract aggregates (population) (2022)
IBGE — Municipal Mesh 2025 (municipal area) (2025)
Extent: São Paulo State (SP)
CRS / Projection: SIRGAS 2000 (EPSG:4674)
EPSG:4674
Software: Node.js · d3-geo · QGIS
Method: Biomethane potential from 17 residues by municipality (CP2B method v5.1, level N4, reference scenario), divided by the 2025 Municipal Mesh area and the 2022 Census population; municipalities ranked by potential and grouped by the quarter of the state total they belong to.
Version: v1.0.0
Licence: CC BY 4.0
DOI: being registered on Zenodo

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The map without a frame, with legend, scale, reference system and credit written on it: ready for papers, lectures and slides. In two versions: with the basemap (neighbours and sea) or only the mapped area, on white.

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How to cite

Cerejo, L. N. (2026). Biometano por km² e por pessoa: o gás está onde a gente não está [Biomethane per km² and per person: The gas is where the people are not] (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Essencial. https://aikiesan.github.io/essencial-geo/en/maps/055-densidade-do-biometano-sp/

@dataset{cerejo2026_densidade_do_biometano_sp,
  author    = {Cerejo, Lucas Nakamura},
  title     = {Biometano por km² e por pessoa: O gás está onde a gente não está},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Essencial},
  version   = {1.0.0},
  url       = {https://aikiesan.github.io/essencial-geo/en/maps/055-densidade-do-biometano-sp/},
  language  = {portuguese},
  note      = {English title: Biomethane per km² and per person: The gas is where the people are not. Licence CC BY 4.0}
}

How to read this plate area, projection, scale, legend and source · 4 terms

1 Area: São Paulo State (SP) The area the plate covers. Outside it, neighbours and sea are drawn in grey, just for orientation.
2 Coordinates and projection: SIRGAS 2000 (EPSG:4674) The layers are in SIRGAS 2000; the drawing’s projection is written in the colophon at the foot of the panel.
3 Scale: Graphic scale bar in the panel The scale bar is true on the central meridian; away from it, measured distances vary a little.
4 Legend and layers: 10 layers in the GeoPackage · polygon, line, point Read the legend before the map: it tells you whether a colour is a rate or a class, and whether a circle is a total.
5 Sources: CP2B (Unicamp) (2026); IBGE (2022); IBGE (2025) Every figure comes from a public source, with its year. The data sheet gives each one’s address.

Terms on this plate

Biogas: The gas from the airless breakdown (anaerobic digestion) of organic waste: manure, vinasse, sewage sludge, rubbish. It is 50% to 70% methane; the rest is mostly CO₂.
Biomethane: Biogas upgraded, with most of the CO₂ removed, to ANP’s specification, at which point it replaces natural gas in the pipeline, in industry and in the lorry’s tank.
N1 to N4 (potential levels): CP2B’s four levels: N1 theoretical (all residue generated), N2 technical (after collection), N3 mobilisable (after competing uses and what already becomes biogas) and N4 accessible (after storage and the logistic factor).
2022 Census: IBGE’s door-to-door count. Results by census tract give residents, age, household-head income, water, sewerage and rubbish.

Anatomy of a plate Full glossary

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Layers, table and figures, under CC BY 4.0. Cite with the DOI.

Full record and citation

Method notes · No. 055

Biomethane per km² and per person in São Paulo’s municipalities

Português · English

Plate No. 055, the first of five in the collection Biogas on the ground, which takes the biomethane potential of plates 049 and 050 down to the ground: how much it weighs per km² and per person, which source leads outside sugarcane, how far it lies from gas pipelines and the power grid and how much has already become a plant.

What the files contain

A single GeoPackage serves the collection’s five plates.

Layer (GPKG)	Geometry	Contents
`municipios`	polygon	645 municipalities: `pessoas` (people), `area_km2`, `biometano_m3d` and the groups (`cana_m3d` cane, `lavouras_m3d` crops, `pecuaria_m3d` livestock, `urbano_m3d` urban), the non-cane sources (`graos_m3d` maize and soy, `citros_m3d` orange, `cafe_m3d` coffee, `aves_m3d` poultry, `bovinos_m3d` cattle, `suinos_m3d` pigs, `lixo_m3d` waste, `esgoto_m3d` sewage), `m3d_por_km2`, `m3d_por_hab`, `concentracao` (1 to 4), `pct_cana`, `lider_fora_da_cana`, distances in km (`km_gasoduto_transporte`, `km_gasoduto_distribuicao`, `km_gasoduto`, `km_ponto_entrega`, `km_subestacao`, `km_linha_transmissao`), `anp_capacidade_m3d` and `gd_biogas_kw`
`gasodutos_transporte`, `gasodutos_distribuicao`	line	existing pipelines in SP and up to about 60 km beyond its border; `em_sp` = 1 when they enter the state
`pontos_entrega`	point	existing gas delivery points
`linhas_transmissao`, `subestacoes`	line, point	existing basic grid, with voltage and year in service
`plantas_biometano`	point	ANP biomethane plants: authorised capacity, biogas processed and use in the month
`gd_biogas`	point	biogas distributed generation summed by municipality, by residue type
`regioes_intermediarias`, `limite_estadual`	polygon	reference

The municipios layer carries seven QGIS styles (por_km2 is the default). The CSV has the same table, without geometry. Points in plantas_biometano and gd_biogas sit at an interior point of the municipality, not at the plant’s address.

Method

Potential: CP2B (Unicamp), method v5.1, level N4 (accessible), reference scenario, in m³ of biomethane equivalent per day, summed over the model’s 17 residues.
Per km²: over the official area of the 2025 Municipal Mesh. Per inhabitant: over the 2022 Census population, summed from census tracts.
Concentration: municipalities from largest to smallest potential; each gets the quarter of the state total in which it starts (25 municipalities in the first, 43 in the second, 80 in the third, 470 in the last).
Classes of the first two maps: quantiles of the 618 municipalities with potential.

Limitations

Per inhabitant does not mean the gas would be used there: a small cane municipality has a lot of gas per person and few people to use it.
The potential is technical and modelled: it says how much gas the residues could yield, not how much is produced.

View this map’s folder on GitHub