Brazil Wins The Race On Alternative Fuel

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Brazil Wins The Race On

Alternative Fuel

By Gibby Zobel

AlJazeera.net

7-23-4

 

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- When the slick green and black racing car

slammed across the finishing line at the world's most famous race

last month, the Le Mans 24 Hours, it may have finished only in 17th

place but the team knew it had won a remarkable first.

 

The Nasamax DM139-Judd had passed what is known the world over as a

fiercesome endurance test - running not on petrol but on bio-

ethanol, an alcohol fuel distilled in northern France from sugar

beet and potatoes.

 

If it hadn't been for an engine misfire, says Nasamax team manager

John McNeil "we know what lap time we could have had, and we know it

would have put us safely in the top ten - even the top six. We have

still shown that this fuel can be competitive in the top level of

international motorsport."

 

The achievement is just one example of how booze-fuelled cars are

lining up for poll position. Or, as in Brazil's case, merely

returning.

 

Liquid gold

 

Brazil became the centre of alternative fuel production in the 80s

spurred by the oil shocks of the 1970s. The experiment reached its

peak in 1985 when an astonishing 91% of cars produced that year ran

on sugar-cane ethanol - the same fuel as the national spirit cachaca

that makes the popular cocktail caipirinha.

 

But it was all economics, not ecology. When the oil prices fell and

sugar prices rose becoming more profitable to export, the homegrown

demand for alcohol-driven cars dropped leaving the "pro-Alcool"

drive looking like little more than a blip. Going from zero in 1978

it was back to virtually none again by 1996.

 

Now with the manufacture of new flex-fuel cars (FFVs), which can run

on either ethanol or petrol, Brazil is trying once more. Economic

factors have placed ethanol-driven cars back in contention and sales

have shot back up.

 

It could lead to Brazil drastically reducing its dependency on oil -

it imports 80% - and becoming a world leader in the export of

renewable fuels.

 

Driven to diversify

 

Other countries are eyeing-up a petrol-free motor future. China,

which is building enough new highways to circle the Earth four

times, is considering following Brazil's example and Thailand too is

looking to follow suit.

 

"At the last world conference on petroleum, which took place in

Germany, it was clear that our sugarcane-based fuel is an attractive

trade product for Brazil," said Maria das Gracas Foster, executive

secretary of the Ministry of Mines and Energy recently.

 

"The country is seen as a supplier, a big potential exporter, one

that is preferred by large nations who face the task of diversifying

their energy sources."

 

Demand for supply

 

At the same time an effort is being made to increase domestic use,

she said. Brazil still retains a network of refilling stations

across the country, and particularly in Sao Paulo state where almost

a quarter of the 180 million Brazilian population live. They all

have the alcohol option side-by-side, pump-by-pump with petrol.

 

About 40% of the cars around the perifeiria (the slums that circle

Sao Paulo) still run on alcohol because they are the older cars from

the 1980s.

 

The network is key. According to the 2004 Motor Trends Alternative

Fuel Review, there are already two million flex-fuel cars in America

which could be running on alcohol tomorrow - but there are only 200

stations in the whole of the US.

 

This is a 100% clean and renewable energy and it is has never been

cheaper- selling at half the price of petrol in Brazil's stations.

 

Green machines

 

But as the French racing team showed, ethilic alcohol, or ethanol,

can be obtained from all vegetables rich in sugar and from starch

extracted from manioc, rice, potatoes or corn.

 

Therefore any country that decided to invest in production and a

network could use a local crop.

 

Now French car giants CitroÎn, Peugeot and Renault are developing

engines with flex-fuel systems to compete in the growing Brazilian

market segment for cars that can run on petrol.

 

The Nasamax team, meanwhile, will be back on the race circuit at

British track Silverstone on 14 August in another powerful

demonstration of alcohol fuel's moment has arrived.

 

"We all really hope this is the start of a new and vibrant area of

motorsport which will secure its future," says John McNeil. "And who

can say that we're wrong to try this?"

 

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