The evaluation demonstrated that intermodality is more efficient if road transports to the rail
terminal are over long distances (see case Sorriso). For the case of Rondonópolis, the competitive
advantage of intermodality over road transports is only slightly distinct. This may be explained by
the need to additionally consider 70 % of the gases (see chapter 3.6) that are emitted during the
return travel to the terminal of Alto Araguaia. If considering that the train returns fully loaded
with other products, emissions would be attributed to these other product process chains instead
of the soybean export process. This would result in a mitigation of the GWP of soybean
exports by 24 % (13.72 kgCO2eq/t) compared to the previous assumption, or, by 31 %
(25.53 kgCO2eq/t) for the distance Sorriso-Santos (800 km road plus 1,400 km railroad) and 34 %
(17.96 kgCO2eq/t) for the distance Rondonópolis-Santos (200 km road + 1,400 km railroad).
In a sensitivity analysis, fuel efficiency was varied to examine the reduction potential for climate
effects. In a first step, it was assumed that diesel quality will improve. The application of the
emission factor of 2.8 was explained in chapter 3.6 with the low diesel quality utilized in Brazil,
which was assumed to improve. The applied emission factor (2.8) was adjusted towards the IPCC
default value (2.67). The variation showed that by consuming higher quality diesel GWP can be
reduced up to five percent. The results are represented by the black marks in figure 4.18.