D 1.3. What is expected from new technologies for the next few years, with important impacts on costs and quality?
In addition to the actions aimed at a strong dissemination of technologies that are already commercially available, innovation in ethanol production processes and product diversification (from sucrose and lignocellulosic sugar-cane waste) are going to take place. In 2000, the production cost reductions resulting from additional implementation of technologies that were already commercially available in the Center-South region were estimated at up to 13 percent. New processes include precision agriculture, integrated sugar-cane and straw reaping and transportation systems, much more industrial automation, and new separation processes (juice and final processing). The genetic modification of sugar-cane is advancing very fast in Brazil (on experimental scale, including field testing), the sugar-cane genome was mapped ion 2001 and So Paulo, and a few dozen projects (applications: functional genome) are being developed by both public and private institutions. Product diversification is being
