Flex-fuel vehicles in Brazil hit 2 million mark, make up 77% of the market
Ethanol-driven cars have been on sale in Brazil for 25 years, but they have been enjoying a revival since flex-fuel models first appeared in March 2003. Just 48,200 flex-fuel cars were sold in Brazil in 2003, but the total had reached 1.2 million by the end of last year and had since topped two million, the Brazilian motor manufacturers' association Anfavea said. (Statistics for the type and number of cars produced and sold in Brazil in the year 2006, please visit this page).
Brazil began its Pro-Alcohol programme more than 20 years ago to promote the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel for cars. At the time, Brazil had a military government, which wanted to reduce the country's dependence on imported Middle Eastern petroleum after the 1970s oil shocks. The idea fell out of favour in the 1990s after sugar prices rose and the price of oil fell, while Brazil's state oil company Petrobras discovered new offshore oilfields which reduced the need for imports.
But in 2003, a new generation of cars capable of running on alcohol entered production, thanks to a combination of new technology and tax breaks. "Flex-fuel" cars attract a purchase tax of 14%, while buyers of their exclusively petrol-powered counterparts are charged 16%:
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: Brazil :: flex-fuel ::
As oil prices continue to hover near the $70-a-barrel mark, amid fears that the world may soon run out of fossil fuels, carmakers and politicians alike are desperate to come up with alternative ways to power the world's motor vehicles. Even a man as closely linked with the oil industry as President George W Bush is now spreading the message that one day we may be growing our fuel instead of digging it out of the ground.
"An interesting opportunity, not only for here but for the rest of the world, is biodiesel, a fuel developed from soybeans," he said in June last year. For the owners of today's polluting gas-guzzlers, it is easy to see this as something for the far-distant future, an irrelevance that will not affect their lives for many years to come.
But in Brazil, it is already a reality.
In the mid-1980s - before any other country even thought of the idea - Brazil succeeded in mass-producing biofuel for motor vehicles: alcohol, derived from its plentiful supplies of sugar-cane. Differently-powered cars were actually in the majority on Brazil's roads at the time, marking a major technological feat.
But the programme that had put the country so far ahead was very nearly consigned to history when oil prices slid back from the high levels seen in the 1970s. Alcohol-powered cars fell out of favour and languished in obscurity until two years ago, when production picked up again in a big way. Now Brazilians are flocking to buy cars that give them the chance to mix and match alcohol with regular fuel - and conventional motor vehicles that run purely on petrol are looking old-fashioned once again.
Military-inspired
Brazil's state-run alcohol fuel programme was set up for patriotic, not financial or environmental reasons. The military government that ran the country from 1964 to 1985 wanted to reduce its dependence on Middle Eastern petroleum during the 1970s oil crisis.
The technology was far from new, having been around since the 1920s, but no country had employed it on such a scale. Under the Pro-Alcohol programme, farmers were paid generous subsidies to grow sugar-cane, from which ethanol was produced.
The price at the pump was also subsidised to make the new fuel cheaper than petrol, while the motor industry turned out increasing numbers of vehicles adapted to burn pure ethanol. As a result, in 1985 and 1986, more than 75% of all motor vehicles produced in Brazil - and more than 90% of cars - were designed for alcohol consumption.
But then it all went wrong.
Backlash hits
A combination of factors turned the tide against ethanol:
* Under newly-restored civilian rule, governments were less concerned about promoting the fuel for national security reasons
* Sugar prices rose, making the ethanol subsidy too costly for the state
* Oil prices had fallen from their 1970s highs
* State oil company Petrobras had discovered new offshore oilfields, making Brazil more self-sufficient in oil.
There remained the environmental argument in favour of ethanol: unlike petrol, it is free of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, while the carbon dioxide emissions it produces can be cancelled out by growing another sugar-cane plant. And in one lasting benefit, ethanol had already replaced lead in conventional Brazilian petrol, putting paid to the worst kind of airborne pollution.
But despite ethanol's green credentials, Brazilian enthusiasm for the fuel reached its lowest ebb in 1997, just as the world was marking five years since Rio de Janeiro hosted the United Nations Earth Summit. That year, just 1,075 motor vehicles built to run on alcohol rolled off the country's production lines - a mere 0.06% of the total output.
Competition
It was at that very point that the US started to show interest in biofuels, as the authorities in California and other states passed laws forcing car manufacturers to reduce pollution levels. The US now produces nearly as much ethanol as the Brazilians do, although the raw material it uses is maize rather than sugar-cane, while President Bush's biodiesel made from soybeans offers another alternative to petroleum.
But Brazilian producers maintain their ethanol is still cheaper to produce - and their market has now received fresh impetus from a combination of tax breaks and technological advancement. A new generation of alcohol-powered cars entered production in Brazil in 2003, after the government decided that cars capable of burning ethanol should be taxed at 14%, instead of 16% for their exclusively petrol-powered counterparts.
Unlike earlier models, these are "flex-fuel" cars - equally happy with pure alcohol, pure petrol, or any blend of the two. When the fuel tank is filled, a special computer chip analyses the mixture and adjusts the motor according to how much ethanol and how much petrol it contains.
In 2004, the first full year that "flex-fuel" cars were on sale, they accounted for more than 17% of the Brazilian market. Last year, they scored an even bigger success, overtaking petrol-driven models for the first time since the 1980s and taking 53.6% of the market for new cars.
But in the wake of the US, other countries are beginning to discover the wonders of crop-based motor fuel - and Brazil has a fight on its hands if it wants to remain the world leader in the field.
More information:
Tribuna de Alagoas: Brasil produziu 2 milhões de carros flex
A Tarde On Line: Venda de veículos flex no Brasil alcança 2 milhões de unidades
BBC: The rise, fall and rise of Brazil's biofuel
BBC: Brazil's alcohol cars hit 2m mark
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Friday, August 18, 2006
France harvests miscanthus for energy
For the first time, France has harvested the promising biofuel crop as part of a commercial enterprise. Together with farmers from Bretagne, the company Bical France has gone beyond the experimental phase and is now harvesting the tall grass that will be used as a biomass feedstock in a series of industries:
- combustion in biomass power plants (co-fired with coal or as a single feedstock)
- second generation ethanol
- production of particle boards
- bioplastics feedstock
- environmentally friendly building materials
Miscanthus giganteus could play a major role in the development of a biomass energy industry around the world, and several initiatives with that aim are underway (see earlier post). In France, trials with a first batch of 500 tons of the tall, rapidly growing grass species, that was harvested mechanically on 40 hectares of land in Bretagne have been completed. Average yields for the energy crop were 12.5 tons/hectare but depending on the maturity of the plant and the climate, it can attain average yields of up to 20tons/ha (mainly in the tropics and subtropics).Cooperative organisation
The plantation was created in 2004 by Bical France, a daughter of Biomass Industrial Crops Ltd which has already produced 400,000 tons of the crop in the UK. The company which was formed by British farmers in 1998 is the main European supplier of industrial miscanthus (amongst a dozen smaller companies). The company's turnover in 2005 was €6 million. In order to get a hold in France, Bical contracted local farmers in Bannalec, in the Finistère region, and in Voves, in the Eure-et-Loire region.
"We work in a cooperative system. All the member-producers retain a part of Bical France's capital. We wish to see them obtaining a regular and decent income from the venture", explains Emmanuel Maupeou, general director.
An astonishing energy content
The first batch of miscanthus was bought by a leader of an energy-intensive industry, the cement group Lafarge Ciments, which was seduced by the impressive calorific content of the elephant grass -- it is considerably higher than most kinds of woody biomass. The 'lower heating value' (LVH) of the grass is around 4700kWh/ton, compared to 3300 for woody biomass, which makes it a very profitable bioenergy feedstock.
Created in Asia from Miscanthus sinensis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus, the hybrid can replace up to 50% of all coal used in an average coal-fired power plant, without the need for any modifications of the plant. It can be used in dedicated biomass power plants as a single feedstock, as well as in smaller but highly efficient Combined Heat and Power systems and in ordinary biomass boilers for homes.
When miscanthus is burned, it emits less CO2, because the grass stores the bulk of its carbon in its rhizomes, the underground roots that allow it to renew itself. In a sense, elephant grass temporarily acts as a carbon sink because only the biomass above the ground is harvested. This makes it an interesting crop for power producers and industries that want to reduce their carbon emissions and receive carbon credits for doing so.
Before the arrival of Bical France, miscanthus was only cultivated in the context of scientific experiments and research:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: France :: ethanol :: miscanthus ::elephant grass ::
But now it has attained a phase where commercial use becomes viable and several European countries are starting to invest in the biomass source. Together with the Roubaix based company Kalys, the French Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (Inra) has established full-scale plantations and has studied ways to reduce the production costs involved in cultivating miscanthus. Its conclusions: the grass can be grown both in greenhouses as well as in open fields, and remain economically competitive under both systems.
No pests, no diseases
A plantation of elephant grass does need a considerable amount of financial and human means, though, because even though it can be harvested mechanically, planting has to be done manually. The soil in which the grass thrives must be aerated and beds must be created by hand. In the first year, growth-threatening herbs have to be removed from the field for the miscanthus to take root and in order to ensure that the grass's rhizomes establish themselves in such a way that they propagate new shoots in the years thereafter. Bad herbs may be removed by hand, but appropriate herbicides do the job too, because miscanthus is quite strong and resistant to chemical treatment. Bical chose for the latter option:
"We use a herbicide during the first year only, because from year 2 onwards, the leaves of the elephant grass become dry at the beginning of the winter and fall off, covering the soil, where they form a rich layer of natural nutrients that prevents bad herbs from growing", explains the general director. "Nor do we use fungicides or insecticides because there is no disease or pest associated with miscanthus".
"Moreover, fields of elephant grass harbor many animal species because the tall grass protects their nests from the rainy season that arrives in March, when the soil is dry or still frozen. As a perennial crop, the grass renews itself naturally and can be harvested over a period of 5 to 18 years. It can grow to a height of 4 metres. And because it is sterile, there is no risk of unwanted dissemination."
Psychological barriers
Even if the qualities of are beginning to be recognized, there is still a lot working against its widespread use: the production cost, the competition of other biomass sources and energy crops, and the difficulty of convincing farmers of adopting a new species... But for Emmanuel de Maupeou, the principal barrier against the development of miscanthus as a basic energy crop is "psychological": "a certain number of environmentalists disapprove of the arrival of a new, non-indigenous plant sepcies, but they forget that this was also the case for maïze and the common potato."
More information:
Novethic.fr - media en ligne du dévelopement durable: Le miscanthus, combustible biomasse prometteur
Bical France: environmental aspects of miscanthus as a bioenergy crop [*pdf]
BioMatNet: European Concerted Action on Miscanthus - leaflet and report
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