Big Blue Owl wrote:(Brazilians) have just enough to get by on.
They don't have enough to export
Brazil says its ethanol exports will likely double to $1.3 billion in 2010 from $600 million in 2005, largely to Japan and Sweden.
More than 5,000 workers now help churn out about 880,000 tons of sugar and 185 million gallons of ethanol every year, working day and night, rain or shine. Nationwide, sugar-cane mills produced nearly 6 billion gallons of ethanol last year, with output projected to jump by 160 percent through 2016.
Here are some hard facts from
2005:
We are told repeatedly how Brazil has achieved energy independence by
the expansion of ethanol in their national energy mix. We are told
repeatedly that we should do the same. The truth is hugely different as
information comes out of Brazil such as the IBD article above (
http://tinyurl.com/ya5dkv).
First some basics. Ethanol, gallon for gallon contains only 2/3 of the
energy found in a gallon of gasoline. This is why the mileage noticeably
drops when using ethanol in the mix. Obviously, the more ethanol in the
fuel mixture the lower the mileage. Second, it takes a huge amount of
energy to make the gallon of ethanol (often more energy than is in that
gallon of ethanol). Third, since the energy per gallon is so low, it takes
huge amounts of land to grow the corn (US) or the sugar cane (Brazil) to
be of any significance. Fourth, it takes huge amounts of water in the
distilleries in the ethanol making processes. This is often 4 gallons of
water per gallon of ethanol produced. That?s a lot. But the Brazilian
energy situation is much different from what we?ve been told even by our
National and Hawaiian elected officials.
Contrary to what we?ve been told, ethanol in Brazil is not a major source
of fuel for cars, and is not the prime reason why Brazil need not import
oil any more. By going all out in ethanol production in 2005, Brazil
produced 282,000 barrel/day of ethanol, most of it from sugar cane, not
corn.
However, Brazil gets most of is car fuel from
onshore and offshore oil in
Brazil, not ethanol. Its oil production of about 1.9 million barrels per
day far outpaces its ethanol production. This oil production capacity is
slightly larger than what Brazil consumes per day.
That is, there is no
need for oil imports. Several more oil rigs are scheduled to go into
production before the end of the year (
http://tinyurl.com/ybwfh4).
In fact, if the numbers are correct, there really is no domestic need
for the ethanol either.
What?s more,
we learn that 80% of the CO2 emissions in Brazil come
from deforestation, much of which went into the farming of sugar cane
(
http://tinyurl.com/w5swf).
Former Brazilian president Lula de Silva did not celebrate this new energy
independence milestone in a sugar cane field. He did so by
smashing a
champagne bottle on the huge Brazilian oil rig in the Albacora Leste field
off shore in the Atlantic Ocean.
To repeat, that?s offshore. Brazil?s oil independence had
little to do with ethanol.
It had everything to do with oil drilling onshore and offshore.
The Brazilians are taking their energy problems seriously and have even
greater plans. They have announced the construction of 7 new nuclear
power plants to be completed by 2025 to ensure energy sufficiency with
economic efficiency (
http://tinyurl.com/y5wlsp). Brazil currently has two
operating reactors Angra 1 and 2 near Rio de Janeiro. Angra 3 will be
completed by 2010. This is a large nuclear power of German design, and
at 1275 MW(e) would provide nearly all of the electrical needs of
Oahu.
Bill Clinton?s claim that ?If Brazil can do it, so can we?, is true in a
way he never imagined. The US should be drilling more offshore, and
building more new generation nuclear power plants. The Brazilians are
doing it. Why aren?t we?
It?s regrettable that the ethanol advocates distorted the Brazilian energy
situation. They have omitted about 90% of the energy picture there. It
gives false hopes to those believing that ethanol is an energy cure-all. It
is not.
Advocacy should never be permitted to trump the science and
engineering realities of energy.
