Is Ethanol a Real Alternative to Petroleum?
The use of ethanol as an automobile fuel is already a reality, says Luis Augusto Barbosa Cortez, a professor of agricultural engineering at UNICAMP, the state university in Campinas [Brazil]. “Nowadays in Brazil, there are bi-combustible [dual fuel] cars in Brazil, and they operate by using 25% alcohol and 75% gasoline,” Cortez says. Gasoline sold in Brazilian service stations needs to have at least 25% anhydrous alcohol. Petrobras, Brazil’s largest petroleum industry, announced in January that it is planning to build an “alcohol duct” – a pipeline for transporting ethanol between the state of Goias in the center of the country and São Paulo, in Brazil’s southeast. Although ethanol is already a reality in Brazil, Cortez believes that it is fundamental for the government to play a broader role by creating market rules and regulations, because there is a risk of supply shortages. This could occur because there is a very close link between ethanol production and sugar production; both are
