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Cuba to modernize its ethanol production
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer

HAVANA - Cuba is quietly modernizing its ethanol-producing facilities, despite Fidel Castro's repeated assertions that making more of the biofuel could starve the world's poor.


The island plans to upgrade 11 of its 17 refineries, which produce up to 180 million liters annually of ethanol from sugar cane, said Conrado Moreno, a member of Cuba's Academy of Sciences.

The refineries currently produce alcohol for use in rum and other spirits, as well as medications and cooking on the island. But the improvements will give Havana the capacity to one day produce fuel for cars, Moreno told reporters at a conference on renewable energy.

Ethanol produced in Cuba is not for cars now, but "in four or five years, we'll see," he said.

Castro has railed against a U.S.-backed plan to produce ethanol from corn for cars in a series of editorials published in state-run newspapers, claiming it will cause prices of farm products of all kinds to spike and make food too expensive for poor families around the globe.

The 80-year-old Castro has not been seen in public since undergoing emergency intestinal surgery and stepping aside in favor of a government run by his 75-year-old brother Raul, the defense minister. Officials insist his health is improving.

In contrast to Fidel Castro, who has depicted corn-produced ethanol for cars as a potential global catastrophe, Moreno conceded the variety produced from sugar cane could bring economic opportunity to some "isolated communities" in Cuba.

Brazil is the world's leading producer of ethanol from sugar cane. In March, it signed an agreement with the United States to promote ethanol production in Latin America and create international quality standards to allow it to be traded as a commodity like oil.

That agreement helped spark the editorials from Castro, which have been read repeatedly on state television and radio. In them, Castro distinguishes between the cane ethanol Cuba produces and the corn-based biofuel common in the U.S.

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Habe ich schon kommentiert. Ethanol aus Mais kann man vergessen. Was sie mit dem Rum machen ist mir egal, den trink ich nicht. In Kuba gibts auch keinen Urwald der hierfür weichen muss. Die Technologie ist zwar veraltet, aber Kuba hat wahrscheinlich geringe Kosten bei der Adaptierung und würde deswegen wohl Sinn machen, weil man wahrscheinlich sowiso Renovieren hätte müssen. Du kannst davon Ausgehen das nur ein Bruchteil den Weg in den Tank finden wird, solange der Rum ein vielfaches von dem Geld einbringt. In Ö bauens gerade ein Ethanolwerk das ungefähr auch den gleichen Output wie ganz Cuba hat, das reicht gerade mal für ein bis zwei % des Treibstoffbedarfs und die produzieren nur für den Bioethanolmarkt, weil den Rübenzucker sonst keiner mehr kauft, die Abfälle der Rübe kann man natürlich auch verwerten, sowie in Kuba Bagasse. Also die paar Liter werdens eher als Rum exportieren.

Schreibt er ja sogar corn-produced ethanol... der Rest steht eigenlich auch nicht anders drinnen. Corn = Mais!!!! Zuckerrohr = Cane

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The relevance of biofuels

Sudarsan and Anupama rightly point out the need for alternate renewable bioresources. The current reliance on petro-based fuels and chemicals is not sustainable as the energy demand is projected to grow by more than 50% by 2025.

Several authors have pointed out that future reductions in the ecological footprint of energy generation will reside in a multifaceted approach that includes nuclear, solar, hydrogen, wind, and fossil fuels (from which carbon is sequestered), and biofuels. Producing biodiesel from crops is not a new concept as the use of biodiesel from a variety of crops was first demonstrated by Rudolph Diesel in 1900.

However, the widespread availability of inexpensive petroleum during the 20th century determined otherwise. Generally shifting society’s dependence away from petroleum to renewable biomass contributes to the development of sustainable industrial society and effective management of greenhouse gases.

A major criticism often levelled against biomass, particularly against large-scale fuel production, is that it could divert agricultural production away from food crops, especially in developing countries. However, this so called ‘food versus fuel’ controversy appears to have been exaggerated in many cases. The subject is far more complex than has generally been presented, since agricultural and export policy and the politics of food availability are factors of far greater importance.

Credible studies show that with plausible technology developments, biofuels could supply some 30% of global demand in an environmentally responsible manner without affecting food production. Certainly no one expects oil to disappear overnight – or even in the next one or two decades.

Even after the recent surge, farm-grown biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel still account for only a small fraction of fossilfuel use, as do other renewables such as wind and solar power. However, thanks to skyrocketing oil prices, worries about climate change and growing anxiety over the future security of the world’s supply of crude, the prospects for ethanol and other biofuels to make major inroads in oil use are bright. Brazil is the only exception where favourable agricultural conditions and flexible processing infrastructure allow the majority of the country’s road transport to be powered economically with canederived ethanol.

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ON BRAZILIAN ETHANOL AND THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Marcelo Dias de Oliveira and colleagues assess the environmental impacts of ethanol production in Brazil and in the United States (BioScience 55:593–602), and conclude that “the use of ethanol as a substitute for gasoline proved to be neither a sustainable nor an environmentally friendly option.”

Their paper offers interesting insights into ethanol production, but we are nevertheless in disagreement with their conclusion for Brazilian sugarcane-based ethanol. The reason for this is that their conclusion follows from a common but problematic use of the ecological footprint concept.

Dias de Oliveira and colleagues estimate the ecological footprint of burning gasoline as the forest area required for capturing the associated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. For ethanol, the footprint is estimated as the amount of land used for the sugarcane production plus the forest area required for capturing the CO2 emissions from energy input in the production (which is assumed to be fossil fuel–based). In total, the footprint for the ethanol car is approximately 0.56 hectare and that of a gasohol car (76 percent gasoline, 24 percent ethanol) about
0.63 hectare.Thus, according to their calculation of the ecological footprint, an ethanol car seems to be essentially equivalent to a gasohol car.

The major problem with their approach is that it fails to consider that the sequestration of CO2 in a forest cannot continue forever. This means that when the established forest matures, the carbon sink ceases, a new area has to be planted and the old area has to be managed so that the carbon stock remains intact.

Taking this dynamic feature into account yields a different picture. The footprint for ethanol remains constant,
whereas the footprint for gasohol grows over time. This is illustrated in figure 1. Here we have assumed that bioenergy (instead of fossil fuels) is used in ethanol production, which gives a somewhat lower area requirement in this case.

Finally, although our analysis suggests that ethanol is preferable to gasoline from a dynamic footprint perspective, this does not necessarily mean that it would be unproblematic if sugarcane ethanol became a dominant fuel in the transportation sector. If the 200 million cars in Europe ran on ethanol, they would require some 40 to100 Mha of land (7 to 15 times the area used today for sugarcane in Brazil). Clearly, the scale of the potential demand is a cause for concern about potential negative environmental impacts. Other, complementary ways to solve the energy problem for transport are thus warranted.

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BRAZILIAN ETHANOL
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Noch mehr, noch mehr, oh Rafael,
lass uns jetzt nicht im Trockenen stehn

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Einverstanden, aber nur wenn Du in der Zwischenzeit nicht Kuba veröden lässt. Castro würde dies auch nicht überleben.

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Du vergisst leider völlig, dass die natürlich Vegetation in Kuba der Regenwald war. Bevor die Spanier kamen, war die ganz Insel davon bedeckt.
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Da kann ja wohl weder Fidel noch Gary was für: Also was soll's

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Vielleicht ist dir das schon mal aufgefallen ....
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......, dass die Kubaner auf ihren Rum stehen? ..Na klar!

Deswegen ziehts mich auch in die "Rum auf Rezeptecke". Und dort werde ich mit den anderen Kubanern auf Castro einen ... und noch viel mehr ... anstossen, dass er noch lange lebe und uns von Deinem elenden Ethanol und "Kognitiven Dissonanz" verschonen möge.

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Puuhh, ich bin bestimmt kein Waldfachmann, aber mein Gefühl sagt mir, dass jahrtausendlang gewachsener Regenwald, der vernichtet wurde, für immer verloren ist. Zitat von Dir: "...ist es möglich Zuckerplantagen in Regenwald zu kultuivieren..." (mit "kultuivieren" schätze ich, dass Du meinst REKULTIVIEREN im Sinne von: Wiederanbauen. Ein "Regenwald-Wiederanbau" ist meiner Meinung nach nicht möglich.

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Es ist interessant sich die Geschichte des Tijuca Waldes einmal zu betrachten: Er hat im Laufe der jüngeren Geschichte einen intensiven Devastierungsprozess durchlaufen. Zuerst erfolgte die extensive Extraktion von Holz, dann eine Periode des Zuckerrohranbaues, und danach Kaffeeplantagen (Mitte des 19. Jhd.). 1860 startete die größte Wiederaufforstung der Geschichte Brasiliens. Grund dafür war die Tatsache, daß auf Grund der Entwaldung viele Flüsse der Gegend ausgetrocknet waren, und die ganze Gegend unter der Dürre litt. Geschichtsbücher sagen, daß ein Major Gomes Archer mit nur 6 Sklaven diesen Job übernahm, welchen er zwischen 1860 und 1873 realisierte.

(wer meldet sch freiwillig ? Cuba - Si?)

Der Tijuca Wald liegt innerhalb des Nationalparkes Tijuca und bildet einen Teil des atlantischen Waldökosystemes. In diesem Wald wurden min. 900 verschiedene Pflanzenspezies, sowie min. 230 Tier- und Vogelspezies registriert. Hauptbaumarten sind der so genannte Arca da Pipa, Óleo pardo, Tatajuva, und diverse Arten Jacarandas. Hier finden sich auch rare Spezies der Familie der Orchideen, roten Quaresmeiras, gelben Ipês, silbernen Embaubas, Eukalyptus, Walnüssen, und viele mehr. Das Tierreich bietet Nagel-Affen, Saqui estrela, Quatis, Spechtarten, Nachtigallen, Tangarás, Teiús, Chamäleon, sowie unzählige Schmetterlingsarten.

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Flora und Fauna

Zur ursprünglichen Vegetation auf Kuba gehörten umfangreiche regengrüne Feuchtwälder, Savannen und Mischwälder, die durch Abholzung für die landwirtschaftliche Nutzung (vor allem das Anlegen großer Zuckerrohr- und Kaffeeplantagen) und für den Schiffsbau weitgehend zerstört wurden.

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