Ethanol consumption tops gasoline in Brazil

Date added: 24th October, 2008 at 10:48 (view all articles from October, 2008)

Categories: Natural Resources

More ethanol was consumed in Brazil than gasoline last year, natural resources investors may be interested to hear.

Swaya Jank, Brazil's Union of the Sugar Cane Industry chairman, told the World Biofuels Symposium in Beijing this week that ethanol is proving to be so popular within the country, that gasoline is now considered to be the alternative - rather than primary - fuel source, Macau Hub reports.

The spokesman suggested that this may be down to how competitive sugar is a source for biofuels, claiming that it has surpassed other raw materials in this regard.

This can benefit nations of all types around the world, he explained.

"Sugar cane is now the most competitive raw material for biofuel production, which represents an opportunity both for developing countries and for developed ones," Mr Jank remarked.

To demonstrate this, the industry expert revealed that only one per cent of Brazil's arable land has been needed in order to replace demand for gasoline in the country by more than 50 per cent.

Brazil's economy has always been heavily linked with sugar, with its official government website claiming that it makes up 25 per cent of raw cane and refined sugar exports in the global marketplace.

From an energy perspective, sugar is Brazil's second-largest source behind oil - according to its Ministry of Mining and Energy - and production of it is growing rapidly.

During 2007, 558 million tonnes of sugarcane was harvested, up 17.62 per cent on the year before.

It is expected that this figure will rise again before the end of 2008 to more than 600 million tonnes, which is more than ten times the amount harvested half a century ago.

A substantial amount of the sugar goes to ethanol production, helping to make Brazil the second largest producer of this fuel - and the largest exporter - in the world.

Daniel Budny and Paulo Sotero's Brazil Institute Special Report: The Global Dynamics of Biofuels suggests that Brazil is a world leader in biofuel technology and is generally thought to possess the first sustainable biofuels economy on the planet.

The same report also revealed that sugar is not the only raw material capable of creating a quality alternative to gasoline, referring to how development has begun on using castor beans and palm oil to produce biodiesels.

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