http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39942/story.htm
Reuters Summit - Ethanol use has Environmental Downsides
BRAZIL: January 22, 2007
SAO PAULO - Biofuels have the potential to lessen the impact of human
civilization on the environment, but even the greenest of renewable
fuels production is not without its dirty underbelly, experts said.
Although global warming is a growing concern among policy makers, the
current trend to substitute fossil fuels with renewables is in part
motivated by countries' efforts to reduce their dependence on oil
from politically volatile regions.
Brazil's cane ethanol distillers, with three decades experience in
nationwide production and distribution, have compiled data
demonstrating the fuel's advantage over fossil counterparts in the
reduction of greenhouse gasses.
Ethanol accounts for 40 percent of total fuels used by non-diesel
powered vehicles in Brazil and represents a 30 percent reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, the Cane Industry
Association (Unica) said.
But not even the global stars of renewable fuels are free of critics
who fear that increased ethanol use worldwide will hasten
deforestation in the Amazon and other tropical rain forests in order
to produce sugar cane.
In 20 years, I doubt there will be a gasoline car on the Brazilian
market. They will all be powered by ethanol, Unica President Eduardo
Pereira Carvalho said during the Reuters Global Biofuel Summit.
Brazil began its ethanol program 30 years ago when it was importing
nearly 90 percent of oil needed for domestic use.
During its growth to maturity, the cane stalk absorbs the same amount
of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as is eventually emitted during
combustion of the ethanol distilled from its juices.
But this is not so for ethanol made from corn in the United States or
wheat in Europe. These primary materials must first be turned into
sugars before fermentation, which requires the use extra fossil fuels
and adds to carbon gasses emitted in the production process.
Brazilian cane mills are also powered by leftover cane stalks that
heat caldrons to generate steam and electric energy, an extra
advantage that corn and wheat don't have.
Unica estimates that Brazilian cane ethanol on average yields more
than 8 times more energy than is used in the production process,
compared with US corn ethanol production that yields between 1.1 to
1.7 times as much energy.
This advantage should improve with the use of state-of-the-art
technologies in Brazilian mills.
EUROPEAN TRADE RESTRICTIONS
The European Union, which just proposed the use of 10 percent
biofuels for transport by 2020, signaled it will demand proof from
suppliers that the product was made in a sustainable manner, a
requirements that may rule out US ethanol.
Environmentalists have already begun to warn that the expansion of
biofuel use currently underway will represent increased use of land
for planting, which could stimulate deforestation or the use of more
reserve lands.
We're currently working on some sort of certification system to
ensure that biofuels that are imported, or the raw materials, are
taken from sustainable production, EU Commission agriculture
spokesman Michael Mann said.
Some US producers hold greater trust in market forces.
Don Endres, CEO of US ethanol producer VeraSun, said better farmers
tend to squeeze out less efficient producers and bring more land
under their farming practices over time.
By providing a market we increase the value and that allows for
better farmers to increase land, Endres said. Farmers take very
good care of their soil and erosion because they invest a lot in the
organic matter.
Story by Inae Riveras
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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