Ethyl Alcohol, or Ethanol
The biochemical conversion process is fermentation: the breaking down of organic matter by organisms. In addition, fermentation is an effective way of creating alcohol for transport fuel. In Brazil the Proalcool programme is the most established fermentation-based transport fuel supply system, providing 60 per cent of the country’s automotive fuel requirement (12 billion litres of ethanol a year). This, on the face of it, ideal process generates a by-product (stillage), which was initially dumped in rivers but has subsequently, as a result of environmental concerns, been found to be an acceptable fuel for the generation of biogas.
In the 1970s, Brazil began a programme to produce ethanol (ethyl alcohol) from sugar cane. By 1983, with the use of massive subsidies, about 90 per cent of Brazilian cars were designed to be fuelled by alcohol. Unfortunately the project has proved to be expensive, because ethanol cannot compete with petrol. The main benefit is that the use of ethanol-powered vehicles has reduced levels of air pollution in Brazil’s cities. In 1996, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that fossil fuels would still provide almost 90 per cent of energy needs by 2010. Thereafter, modern renewable sources could become increasingly important, provided that additional expenditure on research and development is available. None of the proposed sources of renewable energy are completely satisfactory. However, with all the problems of pollution associated with fossil fuels, the search for economic forms of alternative energy has become a matter of urgency. / Excerpt
Source: Encarta Premium Suite
Arranged by: RLT Jardiolin, BVFO
Dawn of Ethanol in the Philippines
There is growing renewed interest in Ethyl Alcohol, or Ethanol Production. This has been brought about by:
• Global concerns for cleaner air and renewable sources of energy that has resulted to passages of laws regarding Clean Air and the use of Biofuels.
• Incentives granted by First World countries and by International communities towards promoting global cleaner air.
• Increased cost of fossil fuels especially in oil importing countries.
There is also renewed focus at sugarcane agriculture, sugar being one of the raw materials for Ethanol: 1. Molasses, a by-product in cane sugar production, is processed to Ethanol. 2. Sugarcane will be milled and directly processed to Ethanol – the most practical option.
Sugarcane, a perennial cultivar that is adoptive to the tropics @ 120 metric tons per hectare per season, is the world’s biggest source of sugar. While many countries would like to cultivate sugarcane, climatic conditions limit them to short-term crops like corn @ 8 metric tons per hectare per harvest, for ethanol production.
In the Philippines, Cassava is also used as raw material in marginal production of ethanol. Almost every Filipino farmer, as augmenter to staples that are rice and corn, cultivates it. Large-scale cultivation of Cassava as cash crop, however, has never gained popularity with farmers for economic reason. It cannot compete with other crops in terms of cost-income.
Another suggested plantain, which was introduced in the 80s, and is being re-introduced lately for bio-fuel (diesel) production, is Jatropha Curcas, a variety of Casla tree. Projected at 5 metric tons of raw material per hectare per year at best, and looking at its cash fall for farmers, the promotion is apparently dead before it could hit fertile grounds.
The Philippines has a long way to go in both sugarcane and ethanol productions. While 100 TC/Ha and more is easily attainable by well-funded growers, micro and small sugarcane farmers that make up a great number can only produce 30 – 50 TC/Ha, bringing the country’s average to 60 TC/Ha by one estimate. Aside from that, we have plenty of agricultural lands that have remained idle particularly in southern Negros Island. [Bayawan valley’s best is around average 80 TC/Ha @ 1.90 PSTC, dry season milling, BISCOM miller.]
Gasohol is locally known as Alcogas and has been experimented with by motorists as early as the 70s. Government, in passing a law that advances the use of biofuel, is opening up a new era, not only for farmers but also for the entire Filipino nation. We are in the dawn of Ethanol.
![Tulum Mexico in Late Afternoon Light [Explore #1, THANK YOU]](http://static.flickr.com/5470/7235972310_8c25258da5_t.jpg "Tulum Mexico in Late Afternoon Light [Explore #1, THANK YOU]")
Meanwhile, in the International fronts:
Argentina confronts biofuels craze By SHANE ROMIG, Associated Press Writer, Fri May 11, 12:35 AM ET, Yahoo! NewsTravel
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentina’s government is hopping on the biofuels bandwagon by offering tax incentives for new initiatives and saying 5 percent of the nation’s fuel supply must be biodiesel- or ethanol-based in three years.
But many Argentines are worried that diverting farmland for biofuels — made from corn, sugarcane, palm oil and other agricultural products — will drive up food prices even higher.
On Friday, that tension will come to a head when former Vice President Al Gore addresses experts and financiers wrangling over efficient and environmentally friendly ways of promoting biofuels development at the first biofuels congress of the Americas. Gore’s global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Oscar earlier this year.
In the United States, President Bush has announced a goal of slashing gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017, a move requiring 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels to replace fossil fuels. Yet in Argentina, where a quarter of the 38 million people remain in poverty five years after an economic crisis, some fear that a growing demand for grains to make biofuels will translate into higher food prices after two years of double-digit inflation.
“This idea of using grains to make energy instead of using them for food, now that’s a problem,” resident Pedro Marcote said. “Food prices keep going up and up. “High commodity prices have fueled Argentina’s recovery but also propelled inflation in food prices. The government has slapped limits on grain and beef exports to ensure local supplies, while corn, soybean and wheat prices continue to soar.
U.N.-Energy, a consortium of 20 U.N. agencies and programs, said in a report issued Tuesday that bioenergy represents an “extraordinary opportunity” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost energy security and promote rural development.
But it also warned that “rapid growth in liquid biofuel production will make substantial demands on the world’s land and water resources” and could force food prices to rise, putting a strain on the poor. It added that increasing production could spur deforestation in fragile ecosystems.
Authorities should be careful about promoting biofuel use, said Loek Boonkamp, head of the agricultural trade and markets division of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He estimated this year that replacing just 10 percent of the world’s current petroleum use with biofuels would consume about 30 percent of all the grain, oilseed and sugar produced in the U.S., Canada, the European Union and Brazil.
Meanwhile, investment plans are surging and companies are lining up to take advantage of the incentives. Hector Morales, executive director of the Inter-American Development Bank, said the bank has allotted $3 billion in credit to finance biofuels projects in Latin America in the coming years. Two-thirds of that financing will go to Brazil, which produces 40 percent of the world’s biofuels, Morales said.
“The region is in a uniquely favorable position to take advantage of biofuels development,” Morales said .Dynamotive, a Canadian biofuels developer, announced plans this week to invest up to $120 million in six plants in Argentina that would use lumber- and paper-industry waste to make biofuel.
Agricultural companies announced 13 different biodiesel projects in Argentina last year, with investments of $285 million, according to the regional group Abeceb Consultancy. Investment in the sector is expected to reach $1 billion in Argentina in four years, Abeceb said. – Yahoo! NewsTravel
Brazil eyes ethanol as fast track to power
Brazil aims to double its production of ethanol in 10 years as the high price of oil and growing concerns over climate change spark a demand for biofuels.
By Sara Miller Llana | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
SÃo Paulo, Brazil – Flying over the heart of Brazil, a vast savannah known as the cerrado here, one could be forgiven for mistaking the setting for Iowa, Kansas, or virtually anywhere along the US farm belt.
Neat acres of cotton, corn, and soybean extend into the horizon, and even American farmers have arrived to join a boom that over the past few years has positioned Brazil to overtake the US as the world’s agricultural superpower.
Last year, Brazil surpassed the US as the largest exporter of soybeans. That followed its scoring the No. 1 spot in beef exports in 2004. And now, as the high price of oil and concerns over climate change spark global demand for alternative fuels, Brazil is aiming to double its production of sugarcane for ethanol in the next decade. As investors flock to this colossal country with its ideal growing climate, Brazil is hoping ethanol will help speed its sluggish rise as an economic power.
“Brazil has already consolidated its position as the agriculture supplier of the world,” says Andre Nassar, general manager of the Institute for International Trade Negotiations (ICONE) in São Paulo, Brazil. “Now I think the Brazilian government sees ethanol as an instrument to make other countries pay attention to us, as a supplier of both food and energy.”
Brazil’s clout has been on display this week during President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s three-day trip to India, where the two countries announced plans to quadruple trade to $10 billion by 2010 and boost India’s use of biofuels. The two rising economic powers also aimed to enhance cooperation as a strong voice of the developing world before heading into talks at the Group of Eight [G - 8] summit in Germany this week.
Brazil’s clout in trade talks
The European Union has invited Brazil, India, and the US to meet in Germany later this month to attempt to hash out a deal on World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations. Launched in 2001, the WTO’s Doha round of talks aims to break down trade barriers that hinder the economic progress of poor countries.
As Brazil’s agribusiness has boomed, it has won important trade cases against the US, including the scrapping of cotton subsidies, and has led a coalition of developing nations against US subsidies in general and European tariffs within the Doha round. “Their cohesiveness arguably may be the one thing that can turn this round of negotiations into something favorable for developing countries,” says Sandra Polaski, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The country’s rise as the world’s “breadbasket” – a transformation made possible by an abundance of land and sun, decades of money pumped into research, and growing demand from developing countries such as India and China – has implications for the face of world agriculture. Today Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of sugar, beef, poultry meat, coffee, orange juice, and tobacco.
In March, Lula signed a proposal with President Bush to promote the ethanol industry in the region.
The prospect for an international ethanol market is still uncertain, but if it does transpire Brazil would most certainly be a central global supplier – even as domestic demand goes up. Its ethanol production is far more efficient than that of the US, which makes ethanol with corn.
“They cannot ignore us anymore, and that has given us power. You can’t make decisions without the world’s largest producer,” says Pedro de Camargo Neto, a former official in the agriculture ministry in Brazil. “The byproduct is it makes us a political leader. Ethanol will help that.”
Brazil did its homework…
Over the past couple of decades, Brazil – in a conscious decision to focus on agriculture instead of just industry – has invested billions of dollars into a premier research institute called Embrapa. It has, among other technological advances, figured out how to grow soy varieties in tropical climates.
Its agricultural exports to China grew by 22 percent between 2005 and 2006, according to Brazil’s Agricultural Ministry. Exports of soybean to China alone rose to 11 million tons in 2006 from 7 million tons a year earlier.
“Brazil owes its [position] to long-lasting and continuous research efforts toward technology in growing tropical crops. With ethanol, it is the same,” says Decio Zylbersztajn, an agricultural economist at the University of São Paulo.
Their success has irked some in the American farming industry, as Brazil gains market share in traditional American domains, such as soybeans. Perhaps the unease is best exemplified in a presentation by the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. “Should Brazil Give You Heartburn?” the Power-Point presentation is titled – with 56 slides highlighting Brazil’s advantages and then all its drawbacks.
… but its climb won’t be easy
Chief among Brazil’s challenges is a lack of infrastructure. A report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that only 10 percent of the country’s roads are paved. That contributes to high transport costs for soybean exports, for example – double what they are in the US, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
And while anxieties abroad abound, they do at home, too – particularly on the environmental front. Much of the deforestation in the past few years has taken place in the Mato Grosso, the heart of soybean production in Brazil. And as sugar production expands and moves to the cerrado, they worry that soy production will get pushed deeper into rainforest areas.
“Brazil needs to decide just how much it’s willing to sacrifice of its natural resources to help other countries with their energy needs and with their soybean needs,” says Randy Curtis, an expert in Latin America infrastructure at The Nature Conservancy.
Brazil’s agribusiness sector accounted for 28 percent of the country’s GDP, and employs 37 percent of the labor force, according to the USDA. Still, some wonder if the boom has benefited Brazil, or just big multinationals that swooped in after Brazil’s economy opened in the 1990s. Many small, subsistence farmers have been displaced.
“It doesn’t help Brazil, it helps the people who own the companies,” says Dennis Keeney, a senior fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “It doesn’t really filter down.”
But Mr. Nassar says that while these questions are important, greater prosperity via agriculture will benefit all. “Many of these regions are very underdeveloped. Now there is new employment,” he says. That is leveling the field between the wealthier coastal area and inland. “By developing the agriculture sector we are also developing the country.”/Sara Miller Llana, CSM
Unsolicited importation of articles from Yahoo and The Christian Science Monitor is by Bayawan Valley Farmers’ Organization. Rodolfo Luis T Jardiolin, Chairman of the Board and President 2006-07, BVFO
bayawanvalleyfarmers@yahoo.com