Biofuels in South America
Biofuels in Brazil
Brazil is the world's second biggest producer of fuel ethanol (6472 Million gallons in 2008 from sugar cane) and the world's biggest exporter of fuel ethanol. Ethanol blends are mandatory in Brazil (E20 to E25) and hydrous ethanol (E100) is also available from thousands of filling stations. There are 6 million flex-fuel vehicles in Brazil and 3 million able to run on E100. In 2008, ethanol accounted for 50% of the 'gasoline' fuel market.
A 3% biodiesel blend is now also mandatory in Brazil and this is set to rise to B5 by 2013 (and possibly as early as 2010).
Sugar cane provides an energy balance of 8-10 (i.e. 8-10 times energy production in comparison to inputs) and GHG reduction of 90% (compared to only 30% for ethanol from corn, which offers an energy balance of only 1.5). The production of bioethanol is not viewed to have a major impact on world sugar prices (and sugar is not a staple food). Hence Brazil is considered by many organisations to be a sustainable biofuel producer.
See:
Sustainability of Brazilian Bioethanol (Report commissioned by SenterNovem)
UNICA - Brazilian
Sugarcane Industry Association
UNICA
sustainable sugar cane initiative
Brazilian Biofuels - Social Fuel Seal
Brazil and the Netherlands have signed a cooperation agreement on the sustainable production of biofuels. This will involve helping developing nations to establish sustainable biofuels crops.
Biofuels in other South American countries
Bioethanol and biodiesel production is also accelerating in other countries in South America. The BioTop - Biofuels RTD Cooperation Latin America - Europe project has produced an Interactive Latin American Biofuels Map - covering statistics, production, sustainability, feedstocks, policy and other information for biodiesel and bioethanol on a country-by-country basis.
BioTop also produces a number of reports on Biofuels in South America covering:
- Full-scale integrated biorefineries
- Improved biodiesel production
- Overview of existing biomass conversion technologies in Latin America
- Overview of sustainability assessment tools for biomass production in Latin America
- Production of biomethane and its use for transport applications
- Overview of biofuel markets and biofuel applications in Latin America
- Initiatives and recent developments in EU Member States and at EU level towards the implementation of sustainability criteria for biofuels
- Improved Bioethanol Production Technologies
- Biomass-to-Liquid Production in Latin America: Technical Opportunities and Research Needs
- Feedstock Production in Latin America
- Sustainable Biofuels in Latin America