Does Brazilian sugarcane-based ethanol compete with food crops?
No. The amount of land used for ethanol production amounts to only 0.3% of the land area in Brazil. It is estimated that Brazil has approximately 250 million additional acres of land suitable for food crops that is not currently used, none of which includes protected rain forest areas. Is it true that ethanol has a negative energy balance, i.e., the energy we use to produce it (sugarcane growing, transportation, industrial processing) is greater than the energy contained in ethanol for use in engines? No. That analysis applies only to ethanol that is produced from corn. The energy used in the production of ethanol from sugarcane is much lower. In Brazil’s sugarcane industry, the ratio between the renewable energy produced and the fossil energy used is 8.9. In other words, the potential energy output from sugarcane-derived ethanol is 8.9 times higher than the energy that went into producing it. That figure is the highest among all liquid fuels produced from biomass around the world.
