Large Scale Fuel Farming in Brazil

Brazil is the World´s first nation to run a large scale program to replace liquid fuels derived from petroleum with biomass¿a source of renewable energy. At the present time about 700,000 cars are using only alcohol produced from sugarcane as a motor fuel and all others consume a fuel of 20% anhydrous alcohol blended with gasoline. The National Alcohol Program ``PRO-ALCOOL´´ foresees that in 1985 the production of 10.7 billion liters of alcohol (165,000 barrels of oil per day equivalent) will be necessary to supply cars and the chemical industry. This paper presents a brief review of the events leading up to the establishment of this program, some of the difficulties encountered and the impact of the program on society.