I hear that Brazil does not import oil due to its use of sugar cane ethanol. Is this true? Explain...?

Question

I was impressed to hear about the sugar cane ethanol - we must really get on the ball with energy alternatives here in the USA. Too bad that corn ethanol is not turning out to be so good afterall...?

Can we grow sugar cane in the deep south, Georgia, Florida, and the southwestern states or even California? Hope so...

Maybe our new presidential administration will address these issues far more seriously.

Thanx for the feedback!

Answer 1

Yes, Brazil's automobiles are run entirely on ethanol.

The problem is, corn is a pretty terrible source for ethanol, people just want to use it because we already have way too much of it that people don't eat.  However, if we were to convert cropland to grow other sources of ethanol, we could produce much more efficiently.  Sugar cane doesn't grow very well in our climate, but there are other crops with a very high ethanol capability per acre, primarily Switchgrass.

Answer 2

Our cars dont run 100% on ethanol, that's not true. They are hybrid - you can fill the tank either with ethanol or oil, in whatever ratio you want - the engineers call them 'flex'. There's also natural gas used as fuel, but for that you need to buy a 'kit' to adapt it in your car, and most of the gas we use is imported from Bolivia (they dont have the technology though, the brazilian oil company is settled in Bolivia and is responsible for extracting and transporting the gas to Brazil). And it's also not true that we do not import oil. We do, 15% of the oil we use is imported. However, the flex engine technology has made the use of oil drop significantly. Our governmet tried to make deals with the US to sell sugar cane at a very low price, but Bush didnt accept the offer because he said it would cause a negative impact to the american corn production. He isnt wrong, but now you need to deal with the crisis.

Answer 3

hello! i'm braizlian and i'll explain. here in brazil we've been doing taht since the 70's, but the reason why we don't import oil isn't just that, because oil is used for more stuff than car fuel. we can produce enough oil for ourselves nowadays, and that summed to the ethanol is what makes us basicaly independent of other countries in this matter. sugar cane ethanol is better than the one from corn. and our ars run both by oil or gas. you just stop at the gas station (ethanol station? hehe) and see which is cheaper on the time. we use both in the same car.

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