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]

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]

Some countries believe that their development expectations can be improved if they switch from oil-based fuels to biofuels. Such is the case of Colombia, a country that has just received the support of the United States to produce biofuel to satisfy some of the country's energy needs. Gregory Manuel, from the U. S. State Department, stated that part of the $1 billion program the U.S. is investing in biofuels includes estabilishing partnerships with nations such as Brazil and Colombia. Speaking to the recent flare-up of criticism against biofuels, Manuel said that the reason for high food prices is not biofuels but bad logistics. According to his figures, only four percent of the world's grain production goes to biofuels.

Colombia's target is to produce sugarcane for ethanol in about 1 million ha, and palm trees for biodiesel in 2 million ha. The Colombian government also said that it will be extremely careful to avoid certain communities to become dependent on only one crop, and keeping the Paramilitary forces and the Narcos out of the biofuel industry.

[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]

Marcos Jank, president of the Sugarcane Union Industry (Unica) in Brazil recently said that, "We're ready to discuss an environmental, social and economic certification of ethanol." São Paulo's ethanol industry is ready to introduce new methods for sugarcane production, such as better mechanization in order to avoid side effects from harvesting. How does this help green up ethanol production? Well, mechanization, some claim, avoids the need for burning after harvest (a very polluting activity) and will surely eradicate bad labor conditions (death by exhaustion is the most common cause of casualties in this industry).

Brazil is one of the leaders of the ethanol industry and is eager to increase its exports. However, environmentalists and human rights groups have always kept an eye on how that ethanol is being produced. That's why the state of São Paul has started a plan called "Green protocol," which officials at 129 of the 156 ethanol manufacturing plants in the state have already signed. This plan includes mechanization of harvesting as one of the keys for making ethanol more sustainable. The target date for this plan is 2017, although nationwide legislation states that it should be in 2031.

Mechanization won't come cheap: it's estimated that 190,000 jobs might be lost when machines are used to harvest sugarcane, but the expectations are that 70,000 new jobs to work with the new tractors will be created. Current work conditions for sugarcane harvesting are claimed to be very bad. São Paulo's Ministry of Employment is currently investigating 19 deaths related to exhaustion and is also prosecuting plantations that don't offer minimum working conditions such as access to water and security equipment. Currently, every harvester needs to cut from 12 to 15 tons of sugarcane a day. This usually means working 12-hour shifts, cutting 78,000 times with a sickle and walking more than 8.8 km (5.5 miles).

Related:

• Brazilian ethanol exports down
  
• Good sugarcane harvest means ethanol will continue to be cheap in Brazil
• Mines and energy minister defends Brazilian ethanol

[Source: AFP via Econoticias]

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil visited last week a plant near São Paul which is testing a new method to obtain ethanol from sugarcane pomace bagasse (what's left after sugar is extracted). Petrobras, the company that is financing this research hopes to obtain 40 percent more ethanol without harvesting more sugarcane.

Plans are to have a full-working plant in 2011 that is able to process 10 tons of pomace and produce 2,800 liters of ethanol from it per day. Although theoretically the process can use any kind of agricultural waste, the plant is being tuned up to use sugarcane pomace, because there's currently more of that than anything else.

Both Petrobras and the Government of Brazil consider this plant the country's first step towards second generation biofuels.

Related:

• Nebraska opens cellulosic ethanol plant
• Royal Nedalco will open a cellullosic ethanol plant using yeast, not bacteria
• Don't use food to make ethanol, use garbage

[Source: Econoticias]

[Edited: Thanks to Chris for the correction on the correct term for bagasse]

I'll admit that I was mildly surprised to read that Toyota was going to start offering flexible fuel vehicles for sale in Brazil soon. Well, let me clarify that: I was surprised to hear the Toyota was not already offering flexible fuel vehicles for sale in Brazil. There, that's better. As the article mentions, ethanol is much cheaper in Brazil than petroleum, and most consumers would not want to purchase a car that they would be forced to use gasoline in. As you are probably aware, Brazil has been pushing forward for a while now to do away with gasoline in general, replacing it with ethanol derived from locally grown sugar cane. Most vehicle manufacturers have been selling vehicles which are capable of running on the alcohol fuel, again as the article mentions, including Honda - arguably Toyota's chief rival from Japan. With 80 percent of all vehicles sold in Brazil flex-fuel compatible, this news should not be surprising to anyone, unless, like me, they assumed that Toyota had already been offering them!

Note the flag above. It says "Order and Progress" (translated into English). Any thoughts on whether the conversion to ethanol from petroleum is progress? I'll say "Yes", but qualify that by saying that it could progress even further if they were able to use a cellulosic process to get the alcohol. At least they're not using corn!

[Source: Detroit News]

A company based in Wisconsin called ENCAP has attracted some attention from investors when they recently found an agricultural product with which they can produce using the byproducts from the creation of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel. In fact, they can use "almost any inert material, including byproducts of the sugar cane process, or dried distillers grains from the corn ethanol process", according to Michael Krysiak, president of ENCAP in an interview performed by Inside Greentech. They have begun building a test plant in Cali, Columbia to start "transforming waste from sugar, corn, rice, cassava, bio-diesel, and other starch-based plants into marketable products."

Sounds like an interesting cycle could take place... using the waste from the biofuel processes to re-grow more crops. This, however, does not solve the problem of using a foodstock as a fuel source. There are many, Fidel Castro for instance, who think that we should not use any foodstocks for fuel. I am not sure yet what the answer is to that one. Solar and wind power for our electric cars perhaps?

[Source: Inside Greentech]

The State of Florida handed out $15 million in grants for a variety of biofuel projects resulting from the 2006 Florida Energy Act. Two thirds of that went to a variety of fuel and energy production projects, such as ethanol production facilities. The rest went to several research projects including a new cellulosic ethanol program that got almost $1 million.

This particular project will examine the feasibility of producing ethanol from sugarcane bagasse. The bagasse is the residual material left after crushing the cane to get the juice. This is distinct difference from the way cane is typically used to produce ethanol. This cellulosic material could potentially yield a lot of ethanol if it could be used as a fuel feedstock. The cellulose would be broken down into sugars through the use of enzymes. the research team will test a variety of thermo-chemical and thermo-mechanical processes for pre-treating the bagasse and then conducting a pilot project for the full system.

[Source: Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services via GreenCarCongress]