I hadn't realized that entrepreneurs are the backbone of the ethanol industry, nor had I realized the
benefits of ethanol fuels.
The
purpose of ethanol fuel is not to reduce harmful emissions (except carbon dioxide, obviously, if the ethanol is produced from biological sources and not from fossil fuels).
Today's flex fuel engines are just gasoline engines that can burn ethanol but ignore the
advantages of ethanol fuel for efficiency.
Back then, Brazil was the poster
child of ethanol fuel, its output second only to that of the United States.
The real reason for the
existence of ethanol fuel is that it is somewhat easier to produce ethanol from agricultural products than it is to produce biogasoline.
Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving
production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel.