Brazilians, freed from the oil dictatorship, succumb to the one of ethanol. Globovision vie EnergyResources
The ethanol prices are sky high in Brazil and Brazilians, who started to be free from the dictatorship of the high international prices of oil and gas, now succumb to the sugar cane producer prices.
The Brazilian government has called the industry for a meeting next web, alarmed by the consecutive prices of the so called alcohol (ethanol fuel, manufactured from sugar cane. Today a sensible part of the Brazilian car park is working with this fuel)
According to the industry, in 2006 the price of this fuel increased in the country an average of 6 percent. According to the press, the increases are much higher.
Last Saturday, the Secretary to the Minister of Energy, Nelson Hubner, warned in a press conference that the government could reduce the ethanol mix with gas from 25 to 20 percent, if producers do not reduce prices.
In Brazil, the sugar cane ethanol is a fuel in itself and besides can go mixed with the gas sold to public.
Brazil is the first world producer of sugar cane, thus allowing them the technology development of the ethanol as fuel.
At present, more than 70 percent of the cars sold in Brazil are bifuel; that is, they can be used with alcohol or gas, no matter which; a technology developed in previous years that seemed to have relieved Brazilians from the high prices dependency of the oil derivates.
But the ethanol, with all the consecutive increases is close to the gas prices.
In a report released this Saturday, the Globo newspaper estimates that the world demand of sugar will increase this year in 7 million tons, which may lead to new increases in the price of ethanol. Brazil suffered an ethanol crisis in the nineties.
In 1988, 90 percent of the vehicles produced locally worked with ethanol as fuel, but then the cane producers shifted to the more lucrative exports to sell sugar and a fuel shortage took place (in the country).
To avoid a similar crisis, they developed the bifuel vehicle, also called flex, which may use gas or alcohol, no matter which. Brazil will get this year the highest historic sugar cane crop, a total of 436.8 million tons (5.1 percent more than previous year), The state owned Compania Nacional de Abastecimiento (Conab) reported
This will allow the production of 26.7 million tons of sugar and 17 billion litres of ethanol.
