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]

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]

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]

This past week, Bloomberg Television aired a documentary on the Brazilian ethanol industry called "Deadly Brew: The Human Toll of Ethanol." With a name like that, you can probably guess that the filmmakers have a certain viewpoint on the way ethanol is made from sugarcane in Brazil. Well, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) is not happy with the film, and has put out a statement (available after the break) that calls the movie "Dangerously Misleading and Out-of-Context."

UNICA has 101 member companies, and the group's president and CEO, Marcos Jank, calls "Deadly Brew" seriously out-of-date. Jank said that, "Bloomberg appears more interested in showing impressive footage of a fire burning in the night than explaining that this is how straw is cleared virtually wherever sugarcane is harvested in the world." The statement also includes a list of what UNICA calls "misrepresentations" in the film. You can read all these claims after the jump.

I haven't seen the film and I haven't been to Brazil to see the conditions for myself, but my guess is that we'll get a response from the Deadly Brew team in the near future.

Related:

• Bloomberg to air documentary about Brazilian ethanol worker labor conditions
• São Paulo searching for cleaner ethanol through mechanization

[Source: UNICA - Brazil's Sugarcane Industry Association]

Good news for Brazilians: the prices for ethanol has dropped 38 percent because of an increase in sugarcane production. Prices will continue its decrease, according to Júlio Maria Borges, an analyst at JOB Consultaría, even when the harvest finishes.

There are two determining factors for this decrease. One is the price of alcohol, which has dropped 18 percent. The second factor is the decrease in ethanol exportations. Despite President Lula da Silva's efforts to export Brazil's biofuel of choice, UNICA (the Brazilian association of sugarcane producers) expects to export just 3,100 million liters this year, whereas last year the number was 3,600 million. The US, which was one of the main customers for Brazilian ethanol, has reduced imports because of the increase in domestic production and the reduction of prices.

Related:

• Philadelphia says biofuels are good for national security and the state's economy
• Petrobras and Statoil join forces to produce biofuels
• Brazil forecasts record sugarcane and ethanol production

[Source: Instituto Español de Comercio Exterior via Econoticias]