Can Brazil Remain the Global Leader in Ethanol Production?
Brazil's Ethanol Market
For over three decades, Brazil has been a global leader in the production and use of sugarcane-based ethanol or ethyl alcohol, a fuel additive that reduces the country’s petroleum consumption. Two years after the first global energy crisis in 1973, the Brazilian government introduced its ethanol initiative to decrease dependence on world energy supplies.
At its height in the mid-1980s, more than three quarters of the 800,000 cars produced in Brazil each year ran on ethanol. However, by 1990, a decline in the supply of sugar-based fuel brought the sale of ethanol-powered cars to nearly zero. Since their launch, “flexible-fuel” cars have helped re-ignite ethanol production in Brazil. Today, more than half of all cars in the country are “flexible-fuel” cars. At the same time, ethanol production has tripled since 1975.
Brazil is the world's biggest producer and exporter of ethanol, developing 282,000 bbl/d in 2005. More that fifty percent of all cars in Brazil are powered by "flex-fuel." This means that they can operate on 100 percent ethanol or an ethanol-gasoline mix. Ethanol in Brazil is derived from sugar cane, which flourishes in the country’s equatorial climate.
This report discusses the history, current state and immense market potential of Ethanol in Brazil.
Biofuel is any fuel that is derived from biomass - recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels.
Ethanol is manufactured from microbial conversion of biomass materials through fermentation. (MORE)
Brazil is the 10th largest energy consumer in the world and the third largest in the Western
Hemisphere, behind the United States and Canada. Total primary energy consumption in Brazil has increased significantly in recent years. (MORE)
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