Posts Tagged ‘ethanol’

Major fuel companies are continuing to work on partnerships in Brazil to produce ethanol. Following the recent announcement that Shell and Cosan are in negociations to form a joint venture, ETH Bioenergy, a large Brazilian producer in the country, has just announced it was acquiring its rival Brenco. The merger of the two companies operations is [...]

The interest from the oil companies in Brazilian ethanol, both in production and distribution, is growing. Following British oil company BP PLC, which announced in 2008 investments of US$1 billion in a Brazilian biofuel project, Royal Dutch Shell PLC is striking a deal with Brazil´s sugar and biofuel giant Cosan to create a $21 billion [...]

Brazilian President Lula da Silva in the inauguration of the green power plant
Brazil has just inaugurated world’s first ethanol-fuelled power plant. The ethanol used in the plant comes from sugarcane, but other biofuels being researched for ecologically friendly attributes or all-weather use are using huge quantities of soy, sunflower and other oil seeds. The new [...]

Workers cut down sugar cane in Sao Paulo state.  Photo: Matheus Galvão
From The Economist print edition
SINCE the start of the year the price of sugar futures has almost doubled. This is welcome news for Brazil, the world’s largest producer of the stuff. The price spike is mainly explained by unfavourable weather—too little rain in India [...]

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) announced today that they have signed an agreement that could accelerate the development and international commercialization of biofuels.  The announcement was made at the International Biofuels Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The NREL/Petrobras agreement will help achieve the goals of the [...]

The Washington Post today compares the biofuel industry in the US and in Brazil. If on one side the American public opinion is in doubt about ethanol’s green credentials, the tecnology in Brazil has overcome all the obstacle and today produces a greener, cheap alternative to gasoline. The production of ethanol in the South American [...]

Business in Brazil – Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of biofuels, including ethanol. But it is not only the high price of commodities which is sustaining the Brazilian economy. The country’s financial system has lower debt, a respectable fiscal policy and a central bank with more autonomy than many others in West Europe.