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November 02, 2005
Brazil sees prospects in sugarcane-based alternative energy
Sugar-cane-based biofuel is clean-burning, renewable and costs almost half as much as gasoline at today's prices. As long as crude-oil prices stay above $30 a barrel, Brazilian ethanol, which costs $26 a barrel to produce, is cost-competitive, attractive and sustainable to boot.
As the largest producer and exporter of ethanol, Brazil is seeing increasing demand from both developing as well as developed countries for its ethanol. But due to local demand driven by flex-fuel cars that run on any combination of ethanol and gasoline Brazil may find it hard to meet demand from abroad.
It is possible, with certain engine modifications, to run autombiles on pure ethanol today. Brazil operates almost 50% of their vehicles on pure ethanol. A 10% blend requires no engine modifications at all. There is a very limited selection of vehicles offered by original equipment manufacturers that will run on 85% ethanol blended fuel.
In 2004, the key importers of Brazilian ethanol were the U.S., India and the European Union.
Posted by admin at November 2, 2005 01:38 AM