Amid The Rise Of Electric Vehicles, Etanol Manufacturers Are Not Going To Die Biofuel Production

Biofuel is still an alternative energy for environmentally friendly vehicles. (photo: doc. twitter)

JAKARTA Electric vehicles are currently becoming prima donna in many countries. Besides being efficient, this vehicle is also environmentally friendly even though the price is still quite expensive.

But the global movement by governments of various countries and automakers to increase car electrification does not mean that ethanol will die as a product. One of the largest executives of biofuel producers in the world, dared to claim it.

"Outside of the ongoing demand in countries that produce biofuels and where EV adoption looks slower, such as Brazil and India, there are industries that need to use biofuels to reduce emissions where electrification is not a viable option," Paula Kovarsky, chief strategy officer at Brazil's Raízen SA.

In an interview Tuesday night, September 13 in New York, where he attends climate conferences in the coming week, Kovarsky said that the so-called difficult sector to reduce, such as shipping and commercial aviation is a strong target for the future of biofuels. Even electric cars can still use fuel cells to convert ethanol into hydrogen to power motors.

"I imagine that for automakers, in the same electric car model that will have batteries in Europe or the US, they can replace those batteries with fuel cells in Brazil or India and use ethanol," he said.

Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen are some of the car manufacturers who develop hybrid technology that uses ethanol to produce hydrogen in the car. Gas from ethanol in turn will feed electric motors.

Experts believe that it is very reasonable that the technology is applied to places like Brazil where there is a broad ethanol distribution system. But since automakers have a global production plan, there is a doubt as to whether they will produce cars for certain regional needs.

Kovarsky sees the potential of ethanol to be used as fuel for sustainable flights or as bio bunker fuel for ships. This is an area where batteries and electrification will be difficult to use.