Photo by Marxchivist. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

It's been so long (like six months) since there was a nice dispute about the impacts of Brazil's ethanol industry. In the past we've seen questions raised about the workers' conditions and the environmental standards of the sugarcane operation. To tell its side of the story, Brazil began a concerted pro-ethanol diplomatic offensive earlier this year. The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) is on the defensive this week because of a report issued by the Friends of the Earth called "Fuelling Destruction in Latin America," which says that the mono-sugarcane-culture used by the Brazilian ethanol industry is detrimental to the workers and the environment. You can download the report here.

Faced with these accusations, UNICA sent out a release (pasted after the jump) that basically calls the Friends of the Earth a bunch of liars, and released a PDF of the "partial list of specific errors, unsubstantiated claims and conclusions in the Friends of the Earth report." Ahh, it's good to be back.

[Source: Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association - UNICA]

85 liters of ethanol per each tonne (metric) of sugarcane harvested. This is the output of a standard sugarcane ethanol plant. As we know, 45 percent of Brazilian fuel needs are covered by ethanol. Of course, what once was thought as the easy solution to replace fossil fuels is now being blamed for a dramatic rise in food prices (or not), by as much as 86 percent. However, we found an article that states that only one feedstock has maintained prices since 2006: sugarcane.

Then there are the surface constraints. UNICA (the Brazilian association of sugarcane producers) states that only 1 percent of Brazil's agricultural land is used to produce ethanol, yet it supplies 45 percent of the country's fuel needs. UNICA also says that there's about seven times more land available from rough surfaces that can't be used for anything else, not to mention that they can plant different species of sugarcane which produce throughout the year.

Therefore UNICA's answer is "yes," ethanol is still a good alternative

[Source: El Mundo via Madrid+d]

Brazil's best-selling vehicle just got a complete makeover, but just about all we know of it is the picture you see above. The Volkswagen Gol (not Golf) has sold more than five million units in Brazil and an additional million outside. Built over the PQ24 platform, which is shared with the current Polo and Fox, the new Gol now adopts transversally-mounted engines, the same as the ones fitted to the Fox: the 1.0-litre and the 1.6-litre EA-111 VHT, which are both flex-fuel. Rumors say that the signature 1.4 TDI used in Europe could also be fitted to the car, but there's no confirmation of this yet. VW's main target is to make the Gol a low-cost global car, like the Fiat Palio or the Dacia/Renault/Nissan Logan. Expect to see it in South America, Iran, India and Eastern Europe.

[Source: Worldcarfans]

When we mention Brazil, we're usually speaking about their aggressive ethanol (alcoól) policy or their availability of flex-fuel cars. But today we're speaking about a creative proposition: The Brazilian Câmara dos Deputados is discussing a bill which will make planting trees mandatory as a means of paying fees for certain legal proceedings. Which ones? Getting married, getting a divorce, buying a new car or trading estate.

For example, if you want to get married, you would have to pay to plant 10 trees (25 if you later need a divorce). When purchasing a car, you would need to plant 20 trees, 40 if it's a light-duty van or 60 if it's a heavy vehicle. When trading estate, 10 trees would be required to sell a house, 20 to sell a business.

The idea is that all these activities harm the environment and so we should give something back. The law aims to recover the rainforest and offset the country's carbon emissions. Conservative estimates from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics calculate that about 65 million trees would be planted per year under the proposed rules.

[Source: Globo]

Up to three percent of the energy needs of Latin America and the Caribbean could be covered by biofuels in 2018. This is the main finding of a report published by the Organizacion Latinoamericana de Energia (Olade, Latin America Energy Organisation) that was presented during the 3rd Biofuel Latinamerican and Caribbean Summit held in the Dominican Republic. Latin America's main biofuel producer is Brazil (no surprise there), a country that produced 3.25 billion m³ of biofuels last year. Using the most recent figures available (from 2006), the study found that Colombia came in a distant second with 165,000 m³ and then Costa Rica, which produced just 25,000 m³. Paraguay, with 34,000 m³, came in fourth.

[Source: Agroinformacion]

For the first time, sugarcane ethanol was a more important energy source for Brazilians (16 percent) than hydroelectricity (14.7 percent). This makes ethanol Brazil's second most-used energy source, right after oil-derived products. The U.S. still produces and consumes a lot of ethanol, with 23.7 percent of America's corn production used to make the biofuel. While these two countries a happily sipping the yellow fuel, the European Union had only a moderate ethanol increase in 2007. Less ethanol was produced in the EU last year, although the difference was compensated by Brazilian imports. Nevertheless, France almost doubled production (up to 578 million liters), which made it the most important European producer, ahead of Germany (394 million liters) and Spain (348 million liters).

[Source: Agra via Energías Renovables]

Brazil is going to try really hard to convince the world that Brazilian sugarcane ethanol is just great. The Latin American giant is about to start what they're calling a "diplomatic offensive" that will culminate in a World Biofuels Summit from November 17th to 21th in São Paulo.

According to André Caranha Correa, Chancelor's Director of Energy, there isn't enough information out there on Brazilian ethanol. First of all, Correa said, it should be excluded from the world rise of feedstocks. He also said that Brazil started working with ethanol in 1975 after the 1973 oil crisis, so it's a well-known and proven technology / solution. He compared sugarcane with USA's corn-based ethanol, saying the U.S. fuel could affect food prices. He insisted that ethanol is more environmental friendly than gasoline, even denying that the Amazon forest was being destroyed to produce sugarcane (maybe not, but don't forget this). As for the poor work conditions we've heard about, Correa said that these were completely against Brazilian legislation and that the Goverment was performing routine inspections to put an end to the dreadful situations.

Why is Brazil doing this? Remember that Brazil is fighting to export its ethanol into the EU. The "diplomatic offensive" aims to respond to all kind of attacks and defend the sustainability of this biofuel.

[Source: Agencia EFE via Econoticias]

According to an article in The New Economic Times, Fiat is planning to launch a new ethanol-powered engine for the Brazilian market. Ethanol is widely used for fuel in Brazil and half of the country's sugar cane crops are currently used for its production. Fiat intends the motor to be run on fuel that the ethanol producers create themselves, saving on taxes. What is most interesting about this story, though, is that it seems the new engine will be based on a current diesel block. In fact, a small amount of diesel fuel is required to run the engine.

"Use of additives (in ethanol) makes running (an engine) dangerous, subject to explosions," according to Fiat Powertrain Technologies product development engineer Joao Irineu Medeiros. "The diesel will be just enough for ignition and the ethanol will complete the combustion," he adds. It sounds like the new Fiat design will be a compression ignition engine running on e-diesel. Instead of being mixed at the pump, though, Fiat is planning to keep the fuels separate until injected into the engine. Proper tuning would be essential, which would explain why Fiat needs until 2010 to bring this engine to market.

[Source: The New Economic Times]

We missed this item recently about a major new oil find off the coast of Brazil. If current estimates pan out, there may be as much as 33 billion barrels of crude oil in the new sub-Atlantic field. That would make the new find the third largest reserve in the world and it could be a huge boon to Brazil. Over at Motor Trend, there is an interesting piece that relates to this find about the late astrophysicist Thomas Gold. In 1999, Gold speculated that in a paper that fossil fuels were anything but.

In "The Deep Hot Biosphere," Gold theorized that oil is actually produced continuously within the earth by microbial processes and pressure from tectonic plates rather than by decomposition, as long believed. The recent Russian oil finds at depths of up to 40,000 ft tend to support this theory. If this is in fact the case then it raises some important questions going forward. Even if diminishing oil supplies are no longer actually a problem, the issue of global climate change remains. If we are to address that problem, then should we use these new oil finds? On the other hand perhaps we should research this theory in more depth and try to understand just how it might work and how long it takes. Is there a possibility that oil could become a renewable resource? Could we possibly help to feed it by using carbon sequestration to pump CO₂ back deep into the earth? At this point we have far more questions than answers.

[Source: Motor Trend]

A new group called the Bioenergy Alliance (BEA) will launch in Miami tomorrow with the goal of expanding Brazilian ethanol exports to the U.S, Mexico and Guatemala. Currently, all ethanol that is imported to the U.S. - hundreds of millions of gallons a year - is subject to a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff. While the announcement by FMC Agricultural Products (pasted after the jump) doesn't specifically mention the tariff, when you have representatives of Petrobras and the founders of the Inter-American Ethanol Commission - former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former minister of agriculture of Brazil, Roberto Rodrigues - together on a panel, you can bet the topic will come up. FMC points out that definitively designating ethanol as a commodity is an important first step in increasing Brazil's export. What is ethanol currently designated as, does anyone know?

Image by Gaby_bra. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

The increase in biodiesel production the world over long ago spelled the end of the need for synthetic glycerin. Since glycerin is a by-product of biodiesel production, communities are finding ways to process the excess material. Kyoto, Japan is using glycerin to make hydrogen. Brazil - more often noted for its ethanol economy - has found that enough glycerin is produced in the country to make bio-propane a feasible prospect. When Brazil's current biodiesel mandate of B2 jumps to B5 in 2013, even more glycerin will be available, so this green propane has a solid future in Brazil in the coming years. Bio-propane isn't the only green energy use for Brazil's glycerin, and you can find out more at Spero News.

[Source: Spero News / Mario Osava]

Click on the image above for more shots of the Pompéo

There are plenty of people who would love to have the fuel mileage of a 250cc motorcycle, but choose not to ride one because of the inherent safety problems and the lack of weather protection. Brazilian company Triciclo thinks that they have the answer to this issue, and it's called the Pompéo. Using a small motorcycle engine which is capable of running on either gasoline or ethanol (important for the Brazilian market), the Pompéo is said to have decent performance due to its low weight. Also important is the fact that the machine - which looks kind of like the front half of a car - is fully enclosed, meaning that the occupants will stay dry no matter what the weather outside. Seat belts provide a measure of safety lacking from the typical motorcycle, although in some countries it will be classed as such regardless. Finally, the cost is said to be in-line with a 400cc motorcycle, meaning the Pompéo should be quite affordable.

We love the idea of the Pompéo and hope it reaches success in Brazil. Currently, there are plans to export the vehicle, but nothing is said of the European or North American market as of yet. Be sure to watch the short video after the break.


[Source: World Car Fans / Triciclo]

Two teams from Brazil and the USA have been working together to launch several ethanol production projects in El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Up to eight projects have been started under this new agreement. Funding will be provided with credits from the Inter-American Development Bank. Both the U.S. and Brazil are also thinking of expanding the partnership to more countries.

The ethanol announcements don't stop there. The U.S. and Brazil will continue research of the biofuel. A few months ago, a group of Brazilian scientists were in the U.S. to learn about the latest developments here and, in a few months time, America scientists will travel to Brazil to continue this work. Both countries also announced that "it's a great priority for them to promote and cooperate in biofuels."

[Source: EFE via Econoticias]

Petrobras has announced that it's creating a subsidiary company which will work exclusively with biofuels and could become Brazil's leading biofuel exporter. The Brazilian giant believes a new company will create good economies of scale to reduce costs in biofuel production, storage and distribution.

At the same time, the company wants to certify the sustainability of its biofuels. Brazil has been accused of poor work conditions in sugarcane plants, as well as destroying the Amazon forest to plant more soy and sugarcane. Deputy and former minister Antonio Palocci now supports a new international certification entity to guarantee the sustainable provenance of biofuels around the world.

[Source: Diariohoy via Econoticias]

I saw the Bloomberg documentary Deadly Brew, the Human Toll of Ethanol, which aired last Thursday and I have to agree with some of the criticisms that UNICA levels at the film. The documentary, which focused on the working conditions of cane cutters in Brazil, gave both sides but seemed to favor the workers a little more than the owners. As you can see in the video above, they do that close up thing to one of the owners, a technique that makes anyone look evil. In the end, whatever they got wrong or one-sided, I am not too concerned with labor conditions of Brazilian ethanol worker. Let me explain.

The documentary starts out by saying most sugar cane in Brazil is cut by hand. At the end however, the documentary says industry projects that will change very soon, up to 80 percent replaced by machines and the remaining 20 percent will run the machines. So, even if there is a problem, cutting by hand is going away. The documentary also mentions there are laws in place, enforcement groups, fines and even unions. The laws are ignored, says the documentary, enforcement lax, fines too low and unions (while numerous) weak on the national level. I don't mean to seem flippant but that's about as good as it gets in the world.

For countries like China, which wants to be a major ethanol exporter, you won't have to use the term virtual slavery when talking about working conditions: It will be slavery! If this were a perfect world, I would agree with EU's interest in trying to change the working conditions around the world. In reality, the best I hope for is some kind of label on the country of origin for ethanol in hopes of shining a light on the problem. We don't know where our food comes from, so I won't hold my breath. What do you think readers: am I wrong to think weak unions and low fines is not a major problem?

Related:

• Brazilian sugarcane industry not happy with "Deadly Brew" documentary
• Bloomberg to air documentary about Brazilian ethanol worker labor conditions

[Source: Bloomberg]