CARB to Vote on Low Carbon Fuels Standard
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is set to vote on the Low Carbon Fuels Standard (LCFS) on April 23-24, 2009. This first of its kind bill was designed to reduce the carbon intensity of all transportation fuels in California 10 percent by 2020. Many states, as well as the federal government, are watching the outcome very closely as they consider adopting similar bills.
In preparation for the ruling, the ethanol industry has been working with CARB to document ethanol as a proven low carbon fuel. Today, the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) sent out a statement declaring that sugarcane ethanol’s carbon intensity is even lower than currently calculated by CARB.
“Sugarcane ethanol has a verifiable reduction in greenhouse gases of 90% compared to gasoline. Sugarcane ethanol will easily meet the LCFS, not just in 2020 but today,” said Marcos Jank, UNICA’s President & CEO. UNICA sent out a public statement following the submission of a 25-page letter to the California regulator.
Within this standard, gasoline will be eligible as a “low carbon fuel” if it reduces its current carbon output from 95 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule (gCO2/MJ) to 86 gCO2/MJ by 2020. Since all biofuels have a lower carbon intensity, they will be a large factor in the reduction of fuel-based carbon.
UNICA's President and CEO Marcos Jank
Although UNICA’s letter is specific to sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil, the American ethanol industry has also submitted documentation about the uncertainty of indirect land use and repeatedly called for more research before finalizing the LCFS.
3 Comments
John Valente
And I would also add that the Brazilian know that the future is not just ethanol… today a California-based biotech company announced that they have been able to register the first synthetic biofuel for commercial use.. and guess what? It’s a sugarcane-to-fuel mixture!
John Valente
Here’s the link for the sugarcane-to-diesel story… http://sugarcaneblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/sugarcane-diesel-coming-soon/
Almir R. Americo
I will take this opportunity to add some useful words about Brazilian bio-fuels.
Brazil created its efficient fuel alternative program in the 70s, when the first oil crisis hit the world. Three decades have passed and now Brazilians drive cars moved by ethanol or gasoline mixed in any proportion. And gasoline in Brazil is not pure, but blended with 25% ethanol, resulting that internal consumption of ethanol in the country is already superior to gasoline’s. Ethanol in Brazil is cheaper than gasoline even at current international oil prices.
Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugarcane without any governmental subsidies and the fuel has a very competitive price. Researchers are increasing the productivity (more fuel extracted per sq.km. of crops) by adapting sugar canes species to each type of land and topography. The productivity now is more than 3 times the records of 30 years ago and it keeps on raising, being expected to soar very soon when the technology to extract ethanol from cellulosic materials (crop waste) will be available for large scale production.
Ethanol production in Brazil uses just one percent of total arable land, and the country can expand its sugarcane fields without disturbing sensitive land areas (like Amazon), just by tapping land such as depleted pastures. Just raising intensity of cattle production from the current 0.8 animals per hectare to 1.2 animals (a target already far exceeded in many parts of the country) would release about 80m hectares of land for crops. There remains plenty of room for expansion: the country has 355 million hectares of farmable land, of which 7 million hectares under sugarcane of which the amount used to make ethanol fills 3.4 million hectares (compared to 200m hectares of pasture). Another 105.8 million hectares remained available, which allows Brazil to increase ethanol production without affecting the environment or food. By comparison, the additional terrain for Brazilian crops could surpass all of the land now under cultivation in the European Union.
Meanwhile, Brazilian food production has doubled in the past decade and that’s the most impressive thing about ethanol from sugarcane: in contrast to corn-based American ethanol or biodiesel derived from soybean oil, there is no cost pressure and no competition with food.
Another persuasive fact for incentiving ethanol production in Brazil is the electricity generated as a by-product of ethanol processing: taking into consideration the energetic balance, the electricity generated in sugar cane processing in Brazil is almost as large as its ethanol equivalence. It’s like a two large scale hydroelectric plants generating electricity exactly when it’s more necessary: in the Brazilian dry season! So the producers of ethanol are also having increasing revenues by selling electricity to the country’s national electric system, which has become an strategic and reliable source of electricity. For all these reasons, ethanol in Brazil is a win-win game for the country, the farmers, the consumers and the environment.
Off course Brazilian ethanol does not intend to concur with petroleum, but it could ease up current oil crisis by supplying a small part of the world energy demand. With the existing price of oil, the permanent threat of war in the Middle East and all environmental problems, there seems to be no other easy solution for the energy problem away ethanol. And the world will have to accept the reality of the liquid ethanol from sugarcane as the right and best solution for the oil crisis.
The problem is that much of Brazil’s ethanol exports continues to face prohibitive tariffs and other barriers to developed markets in the US and Europe. The United States currently places a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on ethanol imported from Brazil. It is difficult to understand the maintenance these tariff levels, except for political reasons. The developed world appears purposely myopic in relation to the opportunities Brazil presents, maybe it’s because that would upset wealthy US and European farmers – a price apparently not worth paying.
Almir R. Américo – Sao Paulo, Brazil
Comments RSS feed —