Gasoline in Brazil

Global population growth is about 1.3% every year, and the population is expected to reach seven billion by 2015 and nine billion by 2050 [1], In the time it takes to read this sentence, another 20 people will have been added to the world s population [2], The number of malnourished people in the world has been estimated at 852 million. Each year, hunger and malnutrition are responsible for the deaths of six million children. In want of food, people plow forests and the world annually loses 9.4 million hectares of forests [3]. A hectare (ha) is 10,000 square meters and 9.4 million ha is about 36,000 square miles or about the size of the entire state of Indiana. Exacerbating the food problem is the use of crops as fuel. For example, in the United States, com is used to make ethanol for gasoline. In Brazil, sugar cane is used. There are other efforts to use crops such as soybean for biodiesel. It has been estimated that food production will have to increase 70% by 2050 to feed the growing population [4]. 

Eor a considerable period, >90% of the new cars in Brazil operated on E96 fuel, or a mixture of 96% ethanol and 4% water (82). The engines have high compression ratios (ca 12 1) to utilize the high knock resistance of ethanol and deUver optimum fuel economy. In 1989 more than one-third of Brazil s 10 million automobiles operated on 96% ethanol/4% water fuel. The remainder ran on gasoline blends containing up to 20% ethanol (5). 

Adding ethanol to the gasoline pool this had already been done for many years in Brazil. 

The ethanol used in Brazil is a mixture of 95% ethanol and 5% water. A small amount (up to 3%) of gasoline is also used. Almost 90% of new cars in Brazil run on this mixture. The rest operate on a 20% ethanol / 80%... 

Brazil s Alcohol Program. In Brazil, the enactment of legislation in 1931 made ethanol addition to gasoline compulsory at a level of 5% (86). Excess molasses and sugar were converted to alcohol in distilleries attached to sugar mills as a means to stabilize sugar prices. Production of fuel ethanol in the 1990s is mosdy from biomass. 

Partial substitution for gasoline utilizing up to 15% methanol, compression ratios of the engines in Brazil could be increased. The fuel consumption does not follow the proportion based on the heat values. Practically the 0 value is around 1.4, similar to ethanol. 

In most cases the ethanol is blended with gasoline. The vast majority of cars and trucks can use a 10% blend with gasoline (E10) in USA. A 22% blend of ethanol with gasoline (E22) is the most sold fuel in Brazil. Flex-fuel vehicles (FFV) are capable of running on variable blends up to 85% bioethanol (E85). However, when using E85 the fuel consumption increases by 20-30% due to differences in energy per unit volume. 

Several countries are already turning to methanol and higher alcohol blends to supplement gasoline. Indeed, Brazil, a country with no significant oil deposits, already uses a blend of ethanol in some of its gasoline. 

Car engines can burn pure alcohol or gasohol, an alcohol-gasoline mixture (10% ethanol in gasoline), with little modification. Gasohol is now widely available in the United States. The use of pure alcohol as a motor fuel is not feasible in most of the United States because it does not vaporize easily when temperatures are low. However, pure ethanol could be a very practical fuel in warm climates. For example, in Brazil large quantities of ethanol fuel are produced for cars. 

Direct solvent extraction is the most widely used oil-recovery method for soybeans, but it also requires considerable capital and large scale to compete. In actual practice, solvent extraction is used to crush over 98% of the soybean processed in the United States. Process flow diagrams are shown in Figures 3 and 4. Most soybean solvent-extraction plants process more than 2,500 MT/day (Figure 5), and some are capable of processing as much as 5,000 MT/day (especially newly constructed plants in Brazil). Direct-solvent-extraction plants smaller than 1,000 MT/day have difficulty competing in the United States. At various times, soybeans have been extracted commercially with petroleum distillate fractions that resemble gasoline, acetone, carbon disulfide, ethanol, trichloroethylene, and even water. 

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