Sugar is reducing Brazil's dependency on petrol and slashing greenhouse emissions from transport, writes Tom Phillips.
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BRAZILIANS find it difficult to get by without sugar. In the mornings they stir copious amounts into their coffee, and by night they douse their caipirinha cocktails with spoonfuls of the stuff. Now, they are increasingly choosing to pump it into their cars in the form of ethanol, powering a sweet-tasting revolution that is reducing its dependency on petrol and turning it into an example for the rest of the world of how to reduce greenhouse emissions from transport.
Statistics show that more than 183,600 "flexi-fuel" cars, which can run on petrol or ethanol made from sugar cane, were sold in the country in December, more than 70 per cent of all cars sold in Brazil. And that's growing each month: December was up 16 per cent on November, which was up 15 per cent from the previous month. In all, 33 per cent of all the fuel used in Brazil's cars is now derived from sugar.
Cost is the driving factor - ethanol fuel is 60 per cent of the price of petrol in Brazil - but there is growing appreciation Brazil is leading the world in the flight from fossil fuels. The President, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, frequently describes his country's pioneering use of bio-diesel - a mixture of conventional diesel and vegetable products - as the country's "energy revolution".
One of those spearheading this is Luiz Custodio Martins, president of the Sugar and Alcohol Union in Minas Gerais, Brazil's second-largest sugar-producing state. "Brazil's growth in this area is irreversible," he says, explaining that the country's vast land mass and tropical climate make it the ideal place to produce sugar cane.
Luis Cortez, a professor at Sao Paulo's University of Campinas, who has spent 20 years researching biofuels, says: "We have the land, the rain, the climate and the experience in Brazil. I don't see any other liquid fuel that can compete."
Brazil's love affair with ethanol as a fuel began in the 1970s, when its national alcohol program was created after petrol prices shot up and the Government, importing 80 per cent of its oil, was faced with an import bill of $US22 billion. It found the solution at the bottom of a bottle. "The dictatorship had greater political ease in putting something like this into practice, because it didn't need to ask anyone," says Cortez. "In this field, at least, they got it right and they did something that really favoured the nation."
Brazilian motorists soon developed a taste for what is known as "alcool", and the Government is congratulating itself. Martins believes Brazil's economy has saved at least $400 billion in fuel imports since the introduction of the program. He predicts that if oil prices remain high, 95 per cent of all new vehicles produced in Brazil will, by next year, be flexi-fuel.
Experts hope exporters will benefit from ethanol as much as the domestic market has. Brazil exported 2 billion litres of ethanol last year, making it the world's largest exporter, with 40 per cent of the market. That figure is expected to rise substantially over the next decade.
He is surprised that European countries have, until now, shown little interest in developing alternative fuels. "In Europe, there are very few innovations in renewable energy," he says. "There is lots of talk, but most of it is just political. These countries are not showing a big interest."
Cortez cites new studies that show ethanol will be extracted from different vegetable fibres, which he hopes will help cement Brazil's dominance in the field. There are others, however, who doubt Brazil will be able to keep up with foreign demand for ethanol, with interest being displayed from as far afield as China and Africa.
In the Campos region of Rio de Janeiro, where much of the state's sugar cane is grown, there was a leap in production of 20 per cent between 2003 and 2004, due to the increased demand of ethanol producers. A recent study by Sao Paulo's sugarcane industry association, Unica, indicated that ethanol producers would have to increase production by 10 billion litres by 2010 to keep pace with overseas demand.
But a lack of space near the country's ports and an outdated transport infrastructure may prevent Brazil from fulfilling its potential. "We will have to build roads and other means of transporting alcohol in certain regions," Cortez says.
Despite the obstacles, Cortez describes Brazil's dominance of the ethanol market as a genuine success story: "The developed world should look at how a poor country, which does not have a history of technology, was able, by means of its own creativity, to give an intelligent answer to the energy problem. The human being is not just intelligent because he is rich."
The Guardian
