Dispatches Do Brazil: Ethanol Levels in Gasoline, Car Killer or Life Saver?

The Senate of Brazil has just approved the law permitting that an additional 2.5% of anhydrous ethanol be put into what is sold as gasoline in this country. After an increase in 2013 from the previous 20% limit to 25, now cars will have to adjust to the new limit of 27.5%. Now, gasoline cars, made to run on fuels with much less ethanol content, will now have to perform with as much as 30% of ethanol in their fuel.

This time around, the National Association of Autopropelled Vehicle Makers (Anfavea, which encompasses most car manufacturers present in Brazil) openly criticized the measure. According to Anfavea’s president, Luiz Moan, the government asked for the association’s input and they conducted a study that came back with some rather alarming info,

“Our engineers point out that there will be a 20% increase of aldehyde pollutants emissions and 75% of NOx emissions. We are very worried, because this will reduce clients’ levels of satisfaction and will be a negative for the environment.”

Besides this, Mr. Moan highlighted that even though flex fuel cars are not affected, gasoline only powered cars, which make up 38% of this country’s fleet, estimated at 14.4 million, will have firing issues, corrosion problems in metallic parts in contact with the new fuel and that rubber parts should also suffer and face durability issues. Finally, even flex fuel cars will pay for this at the pump as global consumption for all kinds of cars will increase between 2.5 and 3%.

Seeking some confirmation on this, I called my mechanic. He rubbed his hands and said gasoline powered cars will have all sorts of engine problems as more ethanol would affect metallic parts. People will have to change sparkplugs earlier, fuel pumps, especially electric ones, should start failing forthwith and exhaust pipes will be corroded and in need of changing. As to flex fuel cars he said the newer the better, but even some of them could present problems. According to him, even if more resistant to corrosion, flex fuel car parts also face more problems, especially those related to start up and detonation as these parts do tend to go sooner on cars that use ethanol. However, he did point out that, in general, ethanol is burned more efficiently so problems with sludge formation are minimized. Asked what he recommends he said, “Gasoline always”.

However, more acclaimed engineers and professors disagree. Renato Romio, head of the Motors and Vehicles Division of the respected Brazilian research center Insituto de Tecnologia Mauá said that certainly flex fuel vehicle will handle the increased ethanol content without any problem whatsoever, but that for cars built to run on gasoline, things are not so clear. According to him, there are tolerances built into Brazilian cars for ethanol, but that these have varied over time. He stresses that, “roughly-speaking, there should be no problems”, but he does agree that cars built in the 90s, with electronic injection, could present some functioning problems as well as pollute more on a case by case basis.

Franciso Nigro, considered one of the “fathers” of the ethanol powered car, and today a professor at the renowned Escola Politécnica of the University of São Paulo is even more confident of the capacity of even gasoline cars to run well even with the increased ethanol content. He declares that though the buyer will be buying less energy, this should represent only a 1% drop in consumption levels and that there will be no unwarranted wear on the engines,

“Car makers use materials made to be ethanol resistant and we {Brazilian car makers} have been doing this for a long time. The differences are small and the engines make up for it. Increased consumption is almost imperceptible.”

Echoing the experts’ words, the Sugarcane Industry Union (UNICA, which congregates the whole sugarcane industry chain sector) that proposed the measure to the Ministry of Agriculture back in April, 2014, is all for it. Its president, Elizabeth Farina, seeking sympathy for their cause, appealed to consumers’ wallet,

“Any increase in the mix of ethanol into gasoline means the substitution of a component, pure gasoline that costs R$2.4 per liter at the refinery, by another, anhydrous ethanol sold by the producer for around R$1.5. This difference allows for, potentially, a reduction in the final price of gasoline at the pump.”

According to Ms. Farina, raising the mix to 27.5% is a question of coherence, since the government has been controlling and keeping gasoline prices low at the refinery level (a state company, Petrobras, refines almost all the gasoline in Brazil) and causing the sugarcane sector enormous problems. Always according to UNICA’s president, the increase will end up benefitting Petrobras itself as the artificial squashing of internal gasoline prices under production or importation levels has led to an explosion in gasoline consumption. More ethanol in gasoline would not only help Petrobras control its bottom line, it would also be good for the country of Brazil itself since the country’s trade balance would be helped along staying in the black as there would be no need to spend foreign currency reserves on gasoline.

UNICA claims ethanol’s advantages over gasoline in environmental terms are “widely known and profound”. It points to a University of São Paulo study showing that the better air quality obtained with more ethanol usage leads to less hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, less deaths and costs for public health care. Besides that, the use of ethanol would reduce up to 90% the emissions of climatic change causing gases. UNICA even throws in the EPA into their defense, saying that that number has led the American agency to classify Brazilian biofuel as “advanced” and that Brazilian ethanol is the only worldwide large-scale production operation to earn that grade.

Disputing Anfavea’s numbers, UNICA has their own. According to them aldehyde pollutant emissions will increase by only 15% and 20% in the case of NOx emissions. The sugarcane industry entity argues that any damage from that is far outweighed by ethanol burning cars producing much less of other kinds of pollutants, like sulfur oxides and carcinogenic hydrocarbons like benzene (in direct proportion to the rise in ethanol usage), not to mention carbonic gases, carbon monoxides, different organic hydrocarbons and particulate matter. Finally, UNICA claims cars should experience in consumption of only 1%.

As to the government, the official proponent of the rise, the Ministry of Agriculture, cites the need to balance ethanol production and consumption and the need to continue incentivizing the sugarcane sector because of the creation of technology, jobs, protection of the environment, among other factors. Of course, naysayers affirm this measure contemplates other interests, like the need for the government to control inflation, most especially in an election year.

Depending now just on the authorization of the Minister of Mines and Energy, Brazilians will soon be using more ethanol in their cars, unsure of what the final impact of this decision will be on them directly. Dependent as always on the currents and countercurrents of the big boys’ games, they feel like so much flotsam on a dirty beach.