04-01-03 The proportion of alcohol added to gasoline in Brazil was only 5 % in the 1930s. It jumped to 10 % in the mid-1970s, 20 % in the late 1970s until authorities allowed it to reach 25 % in 2002. Experts say no adaptations are necessary for a regular gasoline-powered engine to use gasoline blended with alcohol up to the limit of 10 % or 15 %.
"The difficulty arises when this percentage jumps to 25 %, but this is a technical problem we solved in Brazil a long time ago," said Alexandre Aidar Jr., 44, the commercial director of Cosan Industria e Comercio. Cosan, which is one of the largest alcohol producers in the world, is responsible for 7 % of Brazil's total output. It has signed, together with two other local alcohol producers, a Memorandum of Intentions with Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. to export alcohol to Japan in the future.
"The memorandum calls for initial exports of 1 bn litres of alcohol to fuel vehicles," Aidar Jr. said. "Japan would need at least 6 bn litres of alcohol because the country consumes some 60 bn litres of gasoline annually," he said.

A sensitive issue in the Memorandum of Intentions is a guarantee that Japan will have a permanent, reliable source of alcohol supply, but Sao Paulo farmers have found a way to convince Tokyo of their commitment to the project: They have invited the Japanese side to engage in an enterprise that will co-manage sugarcane plantations in Brazil.
Cosan Superintendent Director Pedro Isamu Mizutani, 43, estimates the company will need two years to be ready to supply one-third of the initial exports. Local farmers would have to harvest an extra 12.5 mm tons of sugarcane to produce 1 bn litres of alcohol because it takes one ton of the raw material to produce 80 litres of the fuel.

Japan's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on combating global warming is reason for Brazilian alcohol producers to believe it is just a matter of time before Tokyo definitely moves toward this clean source of fuel. The advantages of sugarcane alcohol seem limitless when compared with gasoline generated from petroleum.
One ton of sugarcane holds an energy potential equivalent to that found in 1.2 barrels of petroleum. The residue remaining after a plant has been processed, or bagasse, can be used to generate electricity or make animal feed, paper, pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, herbicides and insecticides that are biodegradable and harmless to the environment.

The sustainability of the sugarcane cycle is seen at the Usina da Barra plant in the municipality of Barra Bonita 310 km west of Sao Paulo, the world's largest alcohol producing unit. The plant, owned by the Cosan group, is an industrial complex that occupies an area of some 900 sq km and uses steam produced through the burning of sugarcane bagasse to generate 99 % of all the electricity it consumes.
A trip to the plant involves a two-and-a-half hour drive from Sao Paulo along a highway bordered by sugarcane fields which spread as far as the eye can see. The process to produce alcoholfuel takes only five or six hours.
"Europeans always show surprise when they see our scales of alcohol production," said Salvador Ferrari, 53, the manager in charge of development and quality control at the sugar refinery, as he gazes at the huge tanks that store the fuel. The plant has an installed capacity to process 40,000 tons of sugarcane daily and currently processes from 35,000 to 38,000 tons a day.

There are seven sugar refineries in the area where the Usina da Barra is located and Ferrari said they call it the Sugar Cane Plate, in a direct comparison with the US Corn Belt. The Brazilian experience in using alcohol to fuel vehicles comes from the National Alcohol Program (Proalcool) which the government started in the 1970s to counterbalance the impact of the global oil shock on the country's economy.
Alcohol-powered cars represented 94 % of all vehicles manufactured in the country in 1984, but internal economic policies have produced a downward turn in production and now new alcohol-fuelled vehicles comprise only 1 % of the total. The administration of outgoing President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has launched a series of policies to restore the alcohol program and newly elected President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who takes office Jan. 1, has listed it among his priorities so that the country can reduce its energy dependency.

Experts estimate the importance of alcohol will increase substantially when "flexfuel" cars roll out of plants in about two years' time. They will feature engines which will allow drivers to select what type of fuel to use: gasoline, alcohol or a blend of both. "This will be the biggest revolution for the Brazilian car industry since the alcohol program," said the daily O Globo.
The reason is simple: Consumers will be able to choose the lowest price. The new technology for fuel will not make cars much more expensive, as it is restricted to software which controls the engine's injection and ignition systems.
Sugarcane has been cultivated in Brazil since the Portuguese settlers introduced it in the early 16th century and inaugurated an economic cycle which lasted over 100 years. Brazilians are aware their project will face tough resistance all over the world, but they are sure time is on their side as the planet's oil reserves dwindle.

Japanese carmaker Toyota was initially averse to considering new sources of energy, according to Aidar Jr., who debated the issue with the firm's representatives in Tokyo. "They were initially against the idea because they considered too many adaptations would be necessary to use a blended fuel in their cars," he said. "They seemed to have different plans for their cars."
The Brazilian businessmen used a very simple example to convince Toyota officials of the feasibility of the Brazilian strategy to replace petroleum by alcohol: the car he has bought in Brazil, a imported Lexus model, has no problem working with gasoline mixed with alcohol produced from sugarcane. "They had to agree with me that this is possible because it is being done in Brazil already," he said.