Alcohol: A Brazilian Answer to the Energy Crisis

Abstract

The Brazilian government has launched a program to replace much of the country's imported oil with ethyl alcohol produced from sugarcane and other crops. It has been demonstrated that alcohol is a far more flexible fuel than gasoline, since it can be used in motors designed for gasoline in proportions as high as 20 percent with no adjustment to ordinary automobile engines. Alcohol can also be burned in a 50-50 mixture with diesel fuel in truck and bus engines through use of an ingeneous double-carburetion system and seems to be an ideal turbine fuel for use in electric generating plants. Officials of the Brazilian program estimate that about 4 billion liters of alcohol per year will be required to substitute for 20 percent of gasoline consumption by the early 1980's. This level of production would require 1.3 million hectares of cane or between 1 and 2 million hectares of manioc. The alcohol program will also have a favorable impact in areas such as: pollution, employment, and industrial growth.