US environmental agency validates sugarcane ethanol
Valor Econômico 05/06/2009
The Brazilian ethanol will be the only fuel capable of complying with the goals foreseen for the increase of the biofuel consumption in USA within the next decade in case the advanced technologies fail to become commercially viable soon, announced the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday. One resolution proposed by the agency defines strict criteria for the compliance with the goals outlined by the American law, which subjects the increase of the consumption of biofuels to considerable reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases responsible for the greenhouse effect.
The resolution is the initial step of a regulatory process that will take months to be concluded. Even though the purpose is to stimulate changes in the manner biofuels are produced in the U.S.A., creating incentives for the adoption of cleaner technologies, the measure may also create opportunities for Brazilian plant owners interested in increasing their sales to the U.S.A. The U.S. law requires the country's refineries to buy 42 billion liters of biofuel this year and increase the consumption to 136 billion liters until 2022. The greatest part of the demand generated by that requirement is currently met by the local ethanol plants that use the corn as raw material. But the U.S.A. wants to brake the expansion of the corn ethanol plants in order to prevent their increase from continuing pushing the price of the grain up, thus creating difficulties for cattle raisers, food industries, and other sectors. According to the law, the production of ethanol from corn should reach 57 billion liters in 2015 and it cannot exceed that. The other 79 billion liters the refineries will need to buy in order to meet the goals foreseen in the law will have to be produced by means of more modern technologies, able to assure reductions from 20% to 60% in the emission of the greenhouse effect gases related to the use of gasoline. Only the Brazilian ethanol, made of sugarcane, would be able to comply with the EPA criteria proposed today. According to preliminary calculations presented yesterday by the agency, the use of ethanol made of sugarcane as a substitute for gasoline would allow a 44% reduction in the emissions of greenhouse effect gases. In order to meet the EPA requirements, the sugarcane ethanol would have to assure a reduction from 40% to 50%. The use of corn ethanol would allow a reduction of only 16%.