Brazil is now the largest producer of bioethanol in the world, manufacturing 21.1 billion litres in 2011 and exporting 1.45 billion litres. It global position is in part due to the fact that the countryʼs climate is ideally suited to the crop. The Saccharum genus requires warm temperatures, humid air and rich soil to thrive; all of which are found the in South American country. Historically, this reality led to the colonization of Brazil by the Portuguese since sugar was hugely profitable. Secondly, in order to produce fuel in effective quantities, vast expanses of land must be given over to its cultivation. Given its size, land is something that the country has in huge proportion and can therefore give over to the production of bioethanol.
Brazil has produced bioethanol since the 1930s, relying on it as a source of fuel when petroleum supplies were at risk during the Second World War. However, it was not until the 1970s oil crisis that the production was industrialised. Beginning in 1975, the government promoted the “Programa Nacional do Alcool” which aimed at phasing out petroleum-run cars and blended traditional fossil fuel gasoline with ethanol at a ratio of 3:1 (E25), which the government subsidised. In order to achieve this complete shift over to bioethanol, the state-owned oil company, Petrobras, distributed low-interest loans to help establish new agro-industrial ethanol firms that were taken up in huge numbers. However, in the 1980s, reductions in crude oil prices and shortages of ethanol led to a decrease in consumer confidence in the scheme.
The beginning of the 21st century, saw a new governmental focus on the technology, known as the flex-fuel era. Competitively priced vehicles were introduced to the market that were able to run on both ethanol or petroleum at the driverʼs discretion and by 2009, 94% of new cars bought had flex-fuel technology. Accordingly, the distribution of bioethanol increased rapidly to meet the demand with most petrol stations offering the new energy source along side the old fossil fuel alternative. Consequently, the previous decade has seen a massive increase in the use of bioethanol in the nation and, in order to meet those needs, production has sky-rocketed.
Number of vehicules according to the type of fuel required