If you want to see the future of sustainable transport, look to Brazil. While in 2004, ethanol blended into gasoline made up only 2 percent of all fuel sold in the United States, the South American country of Brazil already relies heavily on such alcohol-based fuels. The fuel—hydrated alcohol derived from sugar cane—powers more than two million of Brazil’s cars and produces no benzene or sulfur emissions, and very little carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

 

Today ethanol accounts for as much as 20 percent of Brazil’s transport fuel market, and at a production cost of about $1 a gallon—or half the price of conventional oil—offers an economical alternative to drivers throughout the country.

 

The Wall Street Journal estimates that seven out of every 10 new cars sold in Brazil are flex-fuel—capable of running on either traditional gasoline or bioethanol. 

 

In Europe, biofuels will play an increasingly important role in transportation. In its "Biomass Action Plan," the EU has set a target of increasing the share of biofuels used in transport to 8 percent by 2015.

 

Already Europe is the world's largest producer of biodiesel—mostly made from rapeseed, soybeans, or sunflower seeds—and output is growing at more than 30 percent per year. Back in the United States, great hopes have been pinned on biofuels, which currently make up 3 percent of total energy consumption in the United States.

 

The Biomass R&D Technical Advisory Committee, a panel established by the U.S. Congress to guide future development of federally funded bioenergy research and development, envisions 30 percent replacement of current U.S. petroleum consumption with biofuels by 2030 under a plan that would require about a billion tons of dry biomass feedstock per year.

  

Editorial comment: The Wall Street Journal's estimate that 7 out of 10 cars sold in Brazil are flex-fuel may already be out of date.  Volkswagen, Brazils's largest volume car maker, recently announcement that its entire car production in Brazil will be flex-fuel by end 2007.  The fact that Beetles sold in Europe are made in Brazil means that customers who want a Beetle will be getting a flex-fuel equipped vehicle whether they want that option or not.

 

This should help with the current "chicken and egg" situation in which the oil majors are reluctant to assign forecourt pumps to ethanol until there are enough customers that can use it.  Then if other European exchequers follow Germany's enlightened example and introduce a 0% tax on biofuels, we'll see real progress in sustainable motoring.

 

David Smith, Singapore