Cuba to modernize its ethanol production despite Castro opposition

Cuba is quietly modernizing its ethanol-producing facilities, despite Fidel Castro’s repeated assertions that making more of the biofuel could starve the world’s poor.

The island plans to upgrade 11 of its 17 refineries, which produce up to 47 million gallons annually of ethanol from sugar cane, said Conrado Moreno, a member of Cuba’s Academy of Sciences.
The refineries currently produce alcohol for use in rum and other spirits, as well as medications and cooking on the island. But the improvements will give Havana the capacity to one day produce fuel for cars, Moreno told reporters at a conference on renewable energy.

Ethanol produced in Cuba is not for cars now, but “in four or five years, we’ll see,” he said.

Brandon Sun