Brazil is the worlds largest exporter and after the United States, the second largest producer of ethanol. It is expected that the total production of ethanol in 2008 will reach at least 26.4 billion liters. And this can easily be expanded in the coming years, as space is the most important factor in the growth of ethanol production. Space to realize more sugar cane plantations. And space the country has enough.
During the 30 years that Brazil has developed it’s ethanol program it has had a huge impact on the country’s economy, in various ways. It significantly cut oil imports and consumption over the years and It provided jobs to over 700.000 people in the most recent history of the program. The industry uses modern technology and the price of the sugar cane used for the production of ethanol is very low. Besides that what is left-over from the sugar cane, after production, is used for the production of heat and power. This results in a high average energy balance of 8.3.
All vehicles in Brazil are running on a mix of gasoline and ethanol. In the country the percentage of ethanol in gasoline varies between 20% and 25%, used by regular gasoline vehicles. More than 3 million cars are running on 100% ethanol and 5 million are “dual or flex”, which means that they can run on any mix of gasoline and ethanol.
In 2007 71.9% of all cars manufactured in Brazil were “flex”.
The Brazilian sugar cane ethanol can be produced much more efficiently than the U.S. corn-based ethanol. The energy balance of sugar cane ethanol is 7 times higher than corn ethanol. In Brazil ethanol is produced for 22 cents per liter, compared to 30 cents per liter for the corn ethanol in the U.S. It is 30% more expensive, because the corn first has to be converted to sugar before it can be distilled into alcohol.
For more information on the Brazilian ethanol program, see Wikipedia: Ethanol fuel in Brazil
