Ethanol and sustainability have a lot
in common. The Brazilian product de-
rived from sugarcane has already shown
its huge potential to reduce air pollu-
tion caused by vehicle emissions. In lit-
tle more than a decade, since March
2003, when flex-fuel cars were launched
in Brazil, and up until March 2016, a to-
tal of 351,987,394 tons of carbon dioxide
(C02) were prevented from spewing into
the atmosphere, according to data de-
tected by the Brazilian Sugarcane Indus-
try Association (Unica).
For the purpose of comparison, ac-
cording to data from the institution,
the volume of carbonic acid gas pre-
vented from entering the atmosphere is
much bigger than the total air pollutants
spewed into the atmosphere in 2014
by Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay
and Paraguay, or even Poland, which,
with 317 million tons, is considered to
be one of the leading global producers
of air pollutants that cause the green-
house effect. It is also equivalent to what
would be achieved if upwards of 20 bil-
lion native trees were planted in a peri-
od of 20 years.
Anti-greenhouse effect
Brazil’s ethanol-powered cars prevent the emissions of
350million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
Biofuel is viewed as the best solution for replacing fossil fuels
This total also takes into consider-
ation the amount consumed by the fleet
of flex-fuel cars (now about 90 percent of
new licensed vehicles rely on this tech-
nology) with 100% ethanol or common
gasoline, which now contains 27 percent
ethanol. The fuel consumption of the re-
maining 777 thousand exclusively etha-
nol powered vehicles was not factored in,
and the same holds true for 4 million mo-
torcycles, 58 thousand buses in the city of
São Paulo and some 500 agricultural air-
craft powered by this biofuel.
“In the global challenge towards de-
carbonizing the automobile segment, re-
placing fossil fuels with renewable alter-
natives, ethanol, among all liquid fuels,
comes as the best solution”, says Alfred
Szwarc, emissions and technology con-
sultant at the Unica. This, in his words,
happens by virtue of its “Unsurmount-
able capacity of reducing C02 emissions,
which could reach up to 90% compared
to gasoline, and 80% relative to diesel”.
José Goldenberg, professor at the Uni-
versity of São Paulo (USP), in turn, stress-
es the relevance of every citizen’s individ-
ual decision in giving their contribution
towards preserving the planet where they
live, by using ethanol as fuel. “This initiative,
along with hundreds of equal decisions,
contributes significantly towards reducing
the enormous amount of greenhouse gas-
es spewed into the atmosphere by vehicles
powered by gasoline”, he reiterates.
The same university releases the cal-
culation that entails great repercussion
relative to what renewable fuel could rep-
resent to public health. According to the
study conducted by Dr. Paulo Saldiva, the
total replacement of gasoline and diesel
by ethanol in the bus fleet in the city of
São Paulo would reduce by more than 12
thousand the number of hospital intern-
ments, and by 875 deaths, and expenses
by US$ 190 million a year.
Inor Ag. Assmann
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