Brazil to introduce sustainable ethanol certification to preserve access to EU markets

In Brazil, the national government will introduce an environmental certification for sustainable production of ethanol. The move is primarily aimed at exports to the EU, where questions have been raised about the environmental damages from Brazilian biofuels production.

Last month, the European Union published a draft law banning the importation of biofuels grown in forests, grassland or wetlands, and deliver a minimum of greenhouse gas emission reductions. The ban is expected to affect palm oil based imports due to deforestation, South American ethanol and biodiesel with grassland or forest land use issues, and US corn ethanol due to lower emissions savings.
In a year-end editorial, Biofuels Digest said that the industry must “Think Sustainable, Not Renewable” to succeed in 2008. The editorial stated:

We have been trained to think about fuels in terms of fossil fuels and renewable fuels. For a long time, fossil fuels were dirty and dirt cheap; renewable fuels were clean, and could clean you out buying them.

So why isn’t there a stampede to the ethanol pump? Why are there less than 1500 E85 pumps nationwide and yet the entire industry opens pumps slower than Starbucks opens coffee stores?

The answer is that the conversion to biofuels is not a one-night-only event, but a marathon staged like American Idol, and at this point a number of renewable fuels have been “voted off the show”.

As an investor, find sustainable fuels that can be made at a commercially viable price and scaled to mass production, and bet on them. They have what it takes to be a long-term winner in the emerging new energy market.

1. Cellulosic ethanol. Cellulosic is popular in the US, where researchers have been seeking commercially viable production costs for the process of converting the woody biomass into sugars before fermenting the sugars into ethanol. Because the process uses waste material, rather than the edible biomass, it does not compete with the food markets and is not only sustainable but has a stable price horizon.
2. Brazilian ethanol. Of all the processes used to make biofuels on a mass-scale, such as soy- or palm-based biodiesel, or corn-based ethanol, Brazilian ethanol is repeatedly singled out as the most sustainable of biofuels.
3. Algae-based biodiesel. Of all the biodiesel feedstocks, algae has the most promise in the laboratory for the highest yield. Compared to 400 gallons of fuel per acre for corn, algae can produce up to 10,000 gallons per acre according to some promoters. More, algae requires only sunlight, CO2 and some nutrients to bloom at high speed.
4. Jatropha-based biodiesel. Jatropha doesn’t have the yield potential of algae, but it has more immediate viability, for the plant has been a proven high-yield oilseed source for a long time. Yields of 600 gallons to 1000 gallons per acre are talked about by promoters. Jatropha flourishes in marginal land, and is considered a “feedstock of interest” for that reason.  harvest can be mechanized.

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