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Sugarcane Ethanol and Bagasse Became Brazil’s Second Primary Source of Energy in 2007
8 May 2008
According to preliminary data from Brazil’s annual National Energy Balance report produced by EPE (Empresa de Pesquisa Energética), sugarcane ethanol and bagasse became Brazil’s second primary source of energy in 2007, bypassing the contribution of hydroelectric power.
Ethanol and pulp accounted for 16% of Brazil’s total energy output in 2007, up from 14.5% the previous year, according to the National Energy Evaluation. Hydroelectric power remained essentially stable at 14.7%, down 0.1 percentage points from 2006. Oil and derivatives retained the top spot with 36.7% of output, down from the 2006 level of 37.8%.
Overall, the Brazilian demand for all forms of energy grew 5.9% in 2007, totaling 239.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe). The rate of growth for energy demand was greater than the growth in the Brazilian economy (5.4%).
May 8, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: fred | May 08, 2008 at 08:25 PM
imagine when they start processing the cellulose to get ethanol.. instead of just burning it..
Posted by: Herm | May 08, 2008 at 09:04 PM
Lots of cellulose in cane stalks, but they use it for process heat and it is not clear how much is left over.
Posted by: SJC | May 08, 2008 at 09:57 PM
When the bargasse has an increased value (as input for cellulosic ethanol) then the ethanol producers will find more ways and/or put greater investment in to existing ways to reduce there need for process heat
Posted by: DavidJ | May 09, 2008 at 03:18 AM
Fred: true: only about 80% of Africa's 1 billion hectares of unused non-forest land straddles the equator.
Think of the Democratic Republic of Congo (the size of Western Europe), the Central African Republic (half the size of Western Europe), South Sudan (half the size of Western Europe), the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Cameroon, Gabon, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Angola (huge), Zambia (huge), etc...
Tropical Africa alone should be able to produce more biofuels than all oil currently produced. But of course, we want half of that biomass to go to food, so we can feed more than 12 billion people (out of the 40 billion the planet can carry).
Posted by: Jonas | May 09, 2008 at 08:10 AM
It would seem that part of the effort to constrain population ala China can be applied to these African countries. Provided they balance the food/fuel mix such that the crops bring higher standards of living to general populace. The principle is the higher the standard, the less population growth. While Africa may never be a viable manufacturing area - it certainly has vast land resources which could help feed/fuel the world.
A prudent population goal would appear to be about 25% capacity - so, 9-10 billion would be the upper limit for sustainable living.
Posted by: gr | May 09, 2008 at 09:05 AM
Maybe Africa can become the OPEC of biofuels. They certainly need the income and if they can do it responsibly and in a sustainable way, they can do well.
Posted by: SJC | May 10, 2008 at 06:10 AM
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Strangely, most of the(developed)world isnt lucky enough to straddle the equator.