50 Countries Discuss in Brazil How to Make Biofuel Without Harming the World

Brazil more than pointing out its great capacity for production of biofuels wants to show during the International Conference on Biofuels, which began today, November 17, in Sao Paulo, that agroenergy is a viable alternative for several countries as complementation of the energy matrix and as an instrument for generation of development.

Debating theme “Biofuels as a driving force of sustainable development”, the meeting should bring together representatives of governments of 50 countries, multilateral and academic institutions, companies and organizations in the civil society.
According to the acting director of the Sugarcane Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, Jose Nilton de Souza Vieira, the event should discuss how biofuels may be inserted into the global economy, especially in the transportation sector.

“We have several experiences [in the area of alternative energies], but the hydrogen fueled engine, for example, is still something very distant and electric vehicles tend to have too short autonomy,” said Vieira. In this respect, biofuels become a faster, cheaper and less polluting alternative to be adopted in commercial scale by other countries.

He pointed out, however, that for the expansion of agro energy, it is necessary to have safety, i.e., for the country that decides to use ethanol, for example, to have a guarantee for supply of raw material for the fuel that does not occupy areas turned to the cultivation of foods, nor to invade forests or harm the environment as a whole.

The question of safety should be one of the central points of the conference. According to Vieira, biofuels have not come to replace oil, but to serve as a complementary item in the energy matrix. In this respect, the sustainable use of energy depends greatly on specific conditions in each country.

Brazzil Mag