THE BRAZILIAN ETHANOL INDUSTRY, A TEMPLATE FOR PHILIPPINE ETHANOL
Think of a fuel that does not come from Middle Eastern countries, which is about six times cheaper to produce than corn ethanol and is a potential help to the environment as it requires fewer chemicals in order to grow. Then imagine that such thing is too abundant in the Philippine soil. What we are talking about here is the sugar cane ethanol, a product that fuels the economic growth of Brazil, a country that between its oil reserves and the booming ethanol industry has achieved self-sufficiency in energy. Brazil invested billions of dollars over years of research and development of technology to produce tons of liters of ethanol from the vast cane hectarage that spread along the South American soils. A number of factors, primary among them the vast sugarcane plantations and the oversupply of such plant in the Philippines, along with the adaptability of sugarcane to the country's climate, that success are likely to be replicated from Brazil. The Philippines like Brazil will not have an easy road in developing its sugar ethanol production. Along the way, the Brazil has seen its shares of downfalls, which include the mass emission of greenhouse gases through burning of cane fields upon harvest, a practice the government is still working on. Brazil also debated with the blend it will use, shunning on the E85 ethanol blend used in majority of American flex fuels and using an E95 ethanol blend. Many experts say that the Brazilian formula gets even less gas mileage than its corn ethanol counterpart, which itself gets lower mileage generally compared to gasoline. Philippines also will need to invest perhaps billions of pesos or more in improving road access over the next few years to keep up with demand. Brazil has subsidized billions on its ethanol producers, though it has decreased in amount over the years. Brazil has managed to boost its ethanol industry, exporting millions of barrels a year to different nations worldwide. The Brazilian ethanol industry could serve as a model for the Philippines and others who's looking forward to implement strong biofuel practices. Today, the Philippines is on the right track in replicating the ethanol success of Brazil as the Philippine Biofuels Act was lauded by many experts from all over Asia because of its
well-chiseled programs. Hopefully, we can achieve independence from imported fossil fuels in due time. All we need is to believe in the promise of ethanol.