May 9, 2007

 

Brazil eyes ethanol production from corn, manioc

 

 

Brazil, the world's leading sugarcane-based ethanol producer, is set to step up its studies of other ethanol feedstocks such as corn and manioc, as well as new cellulosic technologies, the government-linked agricultural research firm Embrapa said Tuesday (May 8).

 

"While Brazil mostly produces ethanol from sugarcane, the demand is huge today for ethanol via other feedstocks, such as grains and tubers," said Frederico Duraes, the head of the agro-energy department of Embrapa in a phone interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

 

"We must pay attention to this, for strategic reasons as well as productive and environmental ones," he added.

 

Manioc, or cassava, is an edible, starchy root.

 

Brazil, the world's lowest-cost ethanol producer, isn't likely to turn in coming years to the large-scale, industrialised planting of corn or manioc to produce the biofuel. 

 

In recent months as well, a growing number of environmentalists have stepped up their criticism of biofuels such as corn-based ethanol, warning that it could impact on global food supplies and lead to increased starvation among the world's poor.

 

Nevertheless, there are regional inefficiencies within Brazil's productive chain for the biofuel that could be better served if other feedstocks were also used to produce ethanol, Dureas said.

 

For example, in the country's no. 1 soy and cotton state of Mato Grosso, where corn is produced but not that much sugarcane, bringing ethanol into the state often requires a costly expenditure of fuel, he added.

 

At the same time, it also requires lofty logistical costs to cart the corn to the more industrialised south and south-east states.

 

"In cases like this, it might make sense for local producers in Mato Grosso to produce ethanol out of corn, and then use the corn husks to generate electrical energy or for ethanol via cellulosic technologies," said Duraes.

 

In Brazil's Amazon region as well, ethanol for some isolated communities might be better produced from manioc rather than sugarcane, he added.

 

"Up there, carting one liter of ethanol to these communities often requires two litres or more of ethanol," said Duraes. "In these regions, manioc has huge potential to be produced into ethanol."

 

"At the same time, producing ethanol from sugarcane up there also doesn't make sense for environmental reasons," he added.

 

Ethanol must be transported and consumed outside of Brazil's key sugarcane-producing states, due to a law which requires a 20 percent-25 percent required mix of ethanol in all gasoline.

 

In the 1970s, Brazilian scientists experimented with a wide variety of feedstocks to produce ethanol, including manioc, before settling on sugarcane as the country's most efficient ethanol crop.

 

There are also isolated projects throughout the country to use manioc to produce ethanol in states as far as Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo and Pernambuco.

 

At least one of these projects may be financed by Brazil's state-owned oil firm Petrobras, which last week announced a plan to help farmers build small-scale ethanol units.