Corn Ethanol Boom in Brazil

by Katie Schroeder (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The world’s second-largest corn producer, Brazil is continuing to see a rise in grain ethanol production and new plant construction. U.S. ethanol producers may gain some insight about how biomass power can be used to bring down carbon intensity.

The Brazilian ethanol industry primarily uses sugarcane as its feedstock; however, corn ethanol plants are popping up throughout the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Goias.

These differences include the use of biomass to power ethanol plants, the well-established demand for ethanol, primary use of sugarcane as a feedstock and the use of hydrous ethanol.

The ethanol market in Brazil is well-established and there is a steady demand for it, but the market for corn-based ethanol coproducts is still new.

“When you pull up to a gas station in Brazil you basically have three choices. You can either get diesel, you can get gasoline blended with 27 percent ethanol, or you can get 100 percent ethanol, and the consumer, for the most part, makes the choice on—just call it 100 percent ethanol or 27 percent ethanol basis price.” This “market-oriented approach” is what Kirchhoff (Justin Kirchhoff, president of Summit Ag Investors) believes has helped the Brazilian ethanol business grow long-term. He estimates that 40 to 50 percent of the liquid fuel used in the country is ethanol. Stouky explains that Brazil is also unique in that it is the only country where 100 percent ethanol, also known as hydrous ethanol, can be found in gas stations.

Ethanol plants in Brazil utilize biomass to power the plant, as a 2020 report from the USDA explains. The majority of ethanol plants make ethanol out of sugarcane, using the bagasse to power the plant. However, corn ethanol plants primarily use eucalyptus as the fuel source, though there are some companies experimenting with other biomass fuel sources, according to the report. “Plants in Brazil do self-cogenerate to make their own power and export excess power to the grid,” Stouky explains. “All facilities in Brazil have to cogenerate using biomass regardless of feedstock source.”

“When biotechnology and crops continued to evolve, just call it 20 years ago, that allowed for them to produce two crops per year on the same acre of ground where historically they were only producing a crop of soybeans,” Kirchhoff says. “But as you were able to shorten up the maturities of both soybeans and corn, that unlocked the potential for them to produce a crop of soybeans followed by a second crop of corn. What that did was lower their overall cost of production, allowing for a very economic feedstock source for running corn ethanol plants in Mato Grosso.” READ MORE