Title: ETHANOL FUEL IN BRAZIL
1ETHANOL FUEL IN BRAZIL
2Ethanol fuel in Brazil
- Brazils 29-year-old ethanol fuel program uses
cheap sugar cane, mainly bagasse (cane-waste) for
process heat and power, and modern equipment
- provides a 22 ethanol blend used nationwide,
plus 100 anhydrous ethanol for four million cars
3Ethanol fuel in Brazil
- The Brazilian ethanol program provided nearly
700,000 jobs in 2003, and cut 19752002 oil
imports by a cumulative undiscounted total of
US50 billion - Today, Brazil gets more than 30 of its
automobile fuels from sugar cane-based ethanol
4Ethanol fuel in Brazil
- In recent years, the Brazilian untaxed retail
price of hydrous ethanol has been lower than that
of gasoline per gallon
- Approximately US50 million has recently been
allocated for research and projects focused on
advancing of ethanol from sugarcane
5Ethanol fuel in Brazil
- The Pró-Álcool or Programa Nacional do Álcool
(National Alcohol Program) was a nation-wide
program financed by the government to phase out
all automobile fuels derived from fossil fuels
(such as gasoline) in favour of ethanol - began with the anhydrous alcohol to blend with
the gasoline
- 24 of alcohol and 76 gasoline (commonly known
as gasohol)
6Ethanol fuel in Brazil
- The program successfully reduced by 10 million
the number of cars running on gasoline in Brazil,
thereby reducing the country's dependence on oil
imports - The decision to produce ethanol from fermented
sugarcane was based on the low cost of sugar at
the time
7Ethanol Cars Manufacturing in Brazil
8- Twelve billion gallons of ethanol were produced
worldwide in 2005.
- The U.S. and Brazil are the top producers of
ethanol,
- but many countries produce small amounts of
ethanol.
- Brazil and the U.S. use ethanol as a vehicle
fuel.
- Brazil, however, uses ethanol as a primary fuel,
- whereas the U.S. uses ethanol mainly as an
additive to gasoline fuel.
9Electricity from Bagaço
- Sucrose accounts for little more than 30 of the
chemical energy stored in the mature plant
- 35 is in the leaves and stem tips
- 35 are in the fibrous material (bagasse)
- Part of the bagasse is currently burned at the
mill to provide heat for distillation and
electricity to run the machinery
10Electricity from Bagaço
- ethanol plants to be energetically
self-sufficient and even sell surplus electricity
to utilities
- current production is 600 MW for self-use and 100
MW for sale
- This secondary activity is expected to boom now
that utilities have been induced to pay "fair
price "(about US10/GJ or US0.036/kWh) for 10
year contracts - The energy is especially valuable to utilities
because it is produced mainly in the dry season
when hydroelectric dams are running low
11Electricity from Bagaço
- Estimates of potential power generation from
bagasse range from 1,000 to 9,000 MW, depending
on technology
- Higher estimates assume gasification of biomass
- replacement of current low-pressure steam boilers
and turbines by high-pressure ones, and use of
harvest trash currently left behind in the
fields - For comparison, Brazil's Angra I nuclear plant
generates 657 MW
12Electricity from Bagaço
- Presently, it is economically viable to extract
about 288 MJ of electricity from the residues of
one ton of sugarcane, of which about 180 MJ are
used in the plant itself - a medium-size distillery processing 1 million
tons of sugarcane per year could sell about 5 MW
of surplus electricity
- At current prices, it would earn US 18 million
from sugar and ethanol sales, and about US 1
million from surplus electricity sales
13Electricity from Bagaço
- Bagasse burning is environmentally friendly
compared to other fuels like oil and coal. Its
ash content is only 2.5 (against 30-50 of
coal), and it contains no sulfur. - Since it burns at relatively low temperatures, it
produces little nitrous oxides.
- Moreover, bagasse is being sold for use as a fuel
(replacing heavy fuel oil) in various industries,
including citrus juice concentrate, vegetable
oil, ceramics, and type recycling. - The state of São Paulo alone used 2 million tons,
saving about US 35 million in fuel oil imports
14Program statistics
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16Effect on oil consumption
- Most cars in Brazil run either on alcohol or on
gasohol
- Presently the use of ethanol as fuel by Brazilian
cars - as pure ethanol and in gasohol - replaces
gasoline at the rate of about 27,000 cubic metres
per day
17Effect on oil consumption
- 40 of the fuel that would be needed to run the
fleet on gasoline alone
- However, the effect on the country's overall oil
use was much smaller than that domestic oil
consumption still far outweighs ethanol
consumption - in 2005, Brazil consumed 2,000,000 barrels of oil
per day, versus 280,000 barrels of ethanol
- According to government statistics Brazil
produced 17.471 billion litres of ethanol in
2006
18Comparison with the United States
- Brazil's sugar cane-based industry is far more
efficient than the U.S. corn-based industry
- Brazilian distillers are able to produce ethanol
for 22 cents per liter, compared with the 30
cents per liter for corn-based ethanol
- U.S. corn-derived ethanol costs 30 more because
the corn starch must first be converted to sugar
before being distilled into alcohol
- Sugarcane cultivation requires a tropical or
subtropical climate, with a minimum of 600 mm (24
in) of annual rainfall
19Environmental effects
- The improvement in air quality in big cities in
the 1980s,
- following the widespread use of ethanol as car
fuel, was widely evident
- In Brazil, a recent law has been created in order
to ban the burning of sugarcane fields, and
machines will replace human labor as the means of
harvesting cane. - This not only solves the problem of pollution
from burning fields, but new machines also have a
higher productivity than people
20Environmental effects
- Advancements in fertilizers and natural
pesticides have all but eliminated the need to
burn fields
- however chemical pollution from runoff may turn
out to be just as harmful to the environment as
the smoke
21Social implications
- Sugarcane has an important social contribution to
the poorest people in Brazil.
- Although it still improves little the life
conditions of this segment of Brazilian society,
- especially in comparison to Industrialized
countries living standards, having a temporary
work at Sugarcane harvest fields is, for many,
the only option to survive
22Exports of Brazilian ethanol
- On 19 December 2005, the state-run Petrobras
announced a contract with the Japanese Nippon
Alcohol Hanbai for the creation of a
joint-venture based in Japan to import ethanol
from Brazil. The company, Brazil-Japan Ethanol,
will have as its main object the creation of an
ethanol market in Japan - The exportation of Brazilian ethanol to the U.S.
reached a total of US 1 billion in 2006, an
increase of 1020 over 2005 (US 98 millions)
- Sweden also has a large import from Brazil due to
its 5 use of ethanol in all of its fuels
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