Biofuels Revolution – BioEthanol
Ethanol, bioethanol, alcohol fuel or ethanol fuels also called ‘Green Gasoline” is a renewable fuels that can be made from products like sugar cane, sweet sorghum, algae, grains, cellulose, desert leftover, municipal wastes, bread residues, and many more. In reallity, Bioethanol can be made from any grain, root, fruit or juice crop containing fermentable carbohydrates. It also can be made from crops, residues, or wood that contain cellulose or other long-chain carbohydrates which can be hydrolyzed to fermentable sugars.
Brazil is worldwide leader in ethanol production. There is however a well planned opposition movement to descredit biofuels mainly sugar cane based ethanol. The claim of Amazon forest deforestation to make biofuels is elsewhere. Sugar cane today takes up 0.4 percent of Brazil’s territory, while the Amazon rainforest covers some 40 percent of the country. So even if all the sugar cane for ethanol was planted in the Amazon, points out recent data, this would still amount to just one percent of the Amazon.
By other hand, USA come under increasing scrutiny in light of the so-called “food vs. fuel debate,” by implementing corn Bioethanol industry. There are 147 ethanol distilleries in the U.S., the world’s biggest producer, consumer and importer of the fuel.. The mills, mostly using corn, have the capacity to produce more than 8.5 billion gallons (32.2 billion liters) of the fuel a year. Another 55 plants are being built and six are being expanded, to add 5 billion gallons of capacity. Ethanol is predicted to reach a stockpile of 30 billion gallons by 2016, using half the U.S. supply of corn.
Ethanol shipments from Brazil, the biggest exporter, may rise to more than 5 billion liters (1.19 billion liters) in 2009, from 3.2 billion in 2007, boosted by demand from the U.S. and Europe. Brazil is the world’s second-biggest producer and consumer of the fuel. In 2008 Brazil has alone grown sugarcane for ethanol on 7.2 million acres of land.
However, Bioethanol derived from algae and cellulose does not generates any conflict of food vs fuel. This is the new frontier or second and third generation Bioethanol technologies. We at Biofuels Revolution and American Aquabiotech are working diligently to offer soon to our partners these advanced technologies.
.Member of American Aquabiotech, Biofuels Revolution, Algae for Biofuels and MyBeloJardim Group