A contribution to the nuclear power debate

international | environment | opinion/analysis Thursday April 13, 2006 15:07 by MichaelY - iawm

The use of ethanol in Brazil

Can the use of ethanol in motorcars substitute for fossil fuels?

Energy policy or the absence of it
The fossil fuel trap

Nuclear power is beginning to enter the political agenda. In the ‘Late Late’ last week we had the spectacle of a French pro-nuclear ‘expert’ telling us all how cheap, safe and basically absolutely essential nuclear power is…backed by a young and inarticulate yuppie economist whose argument was that nuclear power is basically the only choice we have….had RTE and Kenny played tapes of the ‘Late Late’ of the late ‘60s with Gay asking American and Irish experts questions about nuclear power, you would have heard similar argument about us being told that the Irish economy would be in tatters by the ‘80s if a plant was not build at Carnsore Point. Thirty years later history repeats itself…early days yet to tell whether this time it would be a farce or a tragedy. But to use an Italian phrase ‘Chi Vivra vedra’ – Those who will live will see!
The anti-side focusses, correctly, in my opinion on the absolute need for a democratically debated and consciously drafted national energy policy. At the same time, examples of European countries such as Sweden and Norway are put forward as States where renewable energy development has become part of an ever expanding process of substituting renewable sources, such as wind and wave, for reliance on nuclear power. One issue, however, that has received scant attention as yet is the expanding use of biofuel production – and particularly the example of ethanol production in Brazil and its use in cars.
“Renewable fuel has been a fantastic solution for us” said recently Brazil’s minister of agriculture Roberto Rodrigues, continuing “…and it offers a way out of the fossil fuel trap for others as well”. Sugar cane has been cultivated in Brazil since the 16th century. Vast green fields of sugar cane stretch to the horizon, producing a crop to be consumed not just as sweets and soft drinks but also in the tanks of, literally, millions of cars.
The use of ethanol in Brazil was greatly accelerated in the last three years with the introduction of “flex fuel” engines, designed to run on ethanol or petrol or any mixture of the two (like the Toyota Prius sold here in Ireland that runs on a switch of petrol and electricity and runs 85 miles to the gallon). Interestingly, petrol sold in Brazil contains 25% alcohol – a practice that has accelerated Brazils’ shift from imported oil.
Ethanol development in Brazil has been led by Brazilian SMEs with limited capital. However, as was to be expected, global giants of the world’s agribusiness, such as Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge & Born, Cargill and Louis Dreyfuss, have recently begun showing interest.
As would be the case with any new and unproven technology, consumer suspicions were high at the beginning. However, as Volkswagen introduced the fist ‘flex fuel’ engine in its Brazilian produced cars in 2003, consumers began to warm up to the idea. Today, less than three years after the technology was introduced, 70% (yes, seventy percent) of the cars sold in Brazil, a number that already topped a million earlier this year, have flex fuel engines. And, again, contrary to our experiences in Europe, these cars have entered the market without increases in prices.
Listen to the Barry Engle, president of Ford do Brazil: “ From the consumer standpoint, it’s wonderful, because you get flexibility and you don’t have to pay for it….the rate at which this technology has been adopted is remarkable…the fastest I have ever seen in the motor sector, faster than the airbag, automatic transmission, electric windows or seatbelts”.
Sugar cane’s and ethanol’s expanding frontier is not bad for the environment either because it is putting largely abandoned or degraded pasture land back into production. And, of course, ethanol burns far cleaner than fossil fuels.
As the closures of the sugar factories in Carlow first, and now Mallow, throws out a lot questions regarding sugar beet production in Ireland, and the farmers engaged in it, perhaps Brazil’s example may open some windows for the future.
If the part of my brain that saves historical data is right, it was Henry Ford who, at the dawn of the motorcar age, had predicted that “ethyl alcohol is the fuel of the future”. Could he have been right for once?