Brazil’s biofuel sector: What future?

The Brazilian biofuel sector has a bright future, though there are challenges to overcome. For many years Brazil was the world’s largest biofuel producer, until it was overtaken by the US in 2006. Brazil’s biofuel production reached 28.5 billion litres in 2010, which according to International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates is 27% of world biofuel production, most of which is ethanol, only a small portion (2.4 billion litres) of that being biodiesel. For 2011, however, IEA estimates show a drop of more than 4 billion litres in Brazilian biofuel production compared with the previous year. But there is good reason to believe that this drop will prove temporary. Brazil has been producing ethanol for fuel since the early 20th century, but it was not until 1975 that the Brazilian government launched the National Alcohol Program (PROALCOOL), driven by energy security concerns resulting from the first oil crisis in the 1970s and the low cost of sugar at the time. See full Article.