ENGINES DIVISION

Ethanol, as a renewable source of energy, has been applied, almost exclusively, as a fuel for internal combustion engines to power vehicles.

For this application, it has to be attractive to the global automotive industry and to be competitive against other conventional and renewable fuels. Although, presently, it looks like ethanol has gained the status of global renewable fuel for spark ignition engines, there are several strong competitors to fulfill one of the global aims of the automotive industry, which is to reduce CO₂ emission. Just to mention a few strategies, one can point out: the use of hybrid-electric vehicles powered by highly efficient diesel engines or direct injection gasoline engines; the application of second generation renewable fuels such as dimethyl ether or isobutanol; and the use of electric vehicles powered by batteries or fuel cells.

The past Brazilian experience with ethanol has shown that it is very difficult to break the century old development model that has been in place in the automotive industry on a global scale: to demand tighter specifications for gasoline and diesel while optimizing, respectively, spark and compression ignition engines and vehicles for those specifications. Only by using the customers demand for freedom of choice, each time they fill up their tanks, was it possible to launch the flex-fuel vehicles and to revitalize Proalcool.

To maintain the leading position of ethanol as the renewable alternative fuel to gasoline, one will have to keep it compatible with one of the principal technology pushers in power-train development, which is the compliance with future emission legislation. It is worth mentioning that the effort is directed mainly to gasoline, which represents more than 96% of all the fuel consumed by spark ignition engines in the world.