Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply - Embrapa

Adding fuel alcohol to the cogeneration of electric power from bagasse,
sugarcane is today the largest renewable source of energy in Brazil. According
to the National Energy Balance, the biomass share in the Brazilian energy
matrix in 2003 was 27%; of which sugarcane bagasse accounted for 12.6%;
firewood and charcoal, for 11.9%; and other sources, for 2.5%.
Sugarcane plantations in Brazil spread over almost 6-million hectares,
of which 85% are located in the Center-South, particularly in the State of São
Paulo (60%), and the remaining 15%, in the North and Northeast Regions.
Approximately 380-million tons were milled in the 2004 harvest, and
about 48% of them were used for alcohol production. The bagasse from the
crushing operation was burned in the mills' boilers, which made the mills
self-sufficient in energy. In many cases the mills have energy surpluses, which
can be sold. Total alcohol production was 15.2-billion liters and the total power
generated was more than 4GWh during the harvest, or approximately 3% of
the country's annual power generation capability.
Despite the huge cogeneration potential resulting from the increased
energy efficiency of the sugar mills, the generation of electric power is only
one of the uses of bagasse. There is ongoing research focusing on the
transformation of bagasse into alcohol using lignocellulose hydrolysis, as well
as into biodiesel; or even making better use of bagasse in the furniture industry
and in the production of feeds.
Brazilian experience with fuel alcohol
At the end of 1979 only anhydrous alcohol was being used as fuel 7 .
In addition to being extremely dependent on imported petroleum, most
Brazilian exports were agricultural commodities at the time, which would
prevent the country from achieving equilibrium in the balance of trade if the
growth trend of petroleum imports were maintained. The second petroleum
shock led the government and the automobile industry to establish a
partnership to push the technological development of vehicles fueled
exclusively with alcohol. In 1980 the federal government determined that
alcohol would be sold to consumers for 60% the price of gasoline, which
established an advantageous parity in the price to caloric power ratio.
7 The first experiences with ethanol in Otto Cycle engines date back to the beginning of the 20th
century. In 1912 some vehicles were fuel driven in an experiment. In 1931 the Brazilian government
authorized the use of 2-5% alcohol mixed in gasoline. The alcohol content was increased to 5-10%
in 1961.
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