by Alnitaka » Sat 18 Mar 2006, 09:06:54
I don't know if this is related to CNN's WWW (We Were Warned) show, but at about 2006 March 18 0745 EST, CNN showed a segment showing how Brazil achieved energy independence. According to the segment, Brazil gets 40% of its fuel from ethanol, and Brazilian cars have switches that can change between gasoline and ethanol. The segment showed seemingly infinite stretches of sugar cane fields.
However, ethanol is probably not going to be a fuel of our future, since it has a low energy profit ratio. According to "Beyond Oil" (the 1986 book by Gever et al, not the Deffeyes book), ethanol and its variations have a ratio between 0.7 and 1.8. This means that for every unit of energy put into ethanol, between 0.7 and 1.8 unit comes out - not very profitable. Many experts say that ethanol will not be the solution to peak oil, including the authors of "Beyond Oil". So why is Brazil profiting handsomely from it? Is it because far fewer people drive in Brazil than in other places (although the segment showed traffic jams in Brazil's cities)? They do seem to be operating efficiently; for example, the energy to run an ethanol production plant comes from burning the chaff of sugar cane plants.
So does Brazil have the answer?
Last edited by
Alnitaka on Sat 18 Mar 2006, 09:34:22, edited 1 time in total.