Brazil — where alcohol and driving does mix

Press, 1 October 1979, Page 32

Brazil — where alcohol and driving does mix

By ROY HARRY in the “Guardian” Drinking and driving, as we are constantly being told, simply do not mix, yet there is one part of the world where the motorist is under great Governmental pressure to depend entirely on alcohol. It might be a tempting thought for seme of us but there is a catch: Brazil is a long and expensive journey and the alcohol is in the fuel tank. For three years, Brazilian motorists have been running their cars on a mixture of petrol and alcohol: 5 per cent at first and now running at 20 per cent, the highest proportion that can be taken without modifying the engine. It is part of the Brazilian Government's target of running down its oil purchases with the two-fold object of saving money and of reducing the country’s dependence on outside sources. Almost anything that ferments produces alcohol and, although the Brazilians have experimented with various crops and nuts, it is sugar cane that gives the best balance in terms of energy consumed to produce yet more energy. With no shortage of land and a rich, fertile climate, up to four crops

a year can be harvested. And ail the waste material after the alcohol has been distilled is then used to fertilise .he soil for the next planting A full circle, nothing wasted, than 3 per cent of Brazil’s vast land area would be reeded to provide fuel for the country's entire car population, at present about seven million. But what is worrying the Government is the startling growth in private car ownership and the consequent fuel demands. This year more than one million cars will be produced and Fiat, General Motors, Ford, and Volkswagen (primarily) have < o n g-terrn investments which should see the country making more cars than Britain within three or four years. “We know of no practical way of rationing petrol,” Mr Sahid Fahrat, minister of social communication, told me. “We are banking on voluntary restraint, urging people to use buses and to give other lifts. We are struggling to find solutions —we must cut gasoline consumption for private cars, saving the oil that we must buy for diesel trucks and industrial fuels. We are now convinced that sugar-cane alcohol is

the answer. The alcohol industry’ has been established here for half a century and is well able to cope with our targets,” he said. Of course, what makes sense in Brazil does not necessarily prove the answer for other countries. At present, it is still cheaper to produce gasoline than sugar-cane alcohol, but Mr Fahrat says that in four to five years, oil prices will have risen so much, and methods of producing alcohol improved to such an extent, that the balance will turn substantially in Brazil’s favour.

The pricing and sales policy, however, is totally artificial and could be carried through only by a committed and authoritative Government. Alcohol production is, the Govememnt insists, not subsidised in any way — it is just that petrol is fearfully heavily taxed. Grants can be found for filling stations selling solely alcohol — and they stay open throughout the week-end: petrol pumps are closed from Saturday evening until Monday morning. It costs the equivalent of $1.25 a gallon, the same as diesel and only half the price of gasoline.

The fairly forcible "encouragement" by the Government is carried

through into its own practices: about 10 per cent of next year’s car production ■will be designed to run solely on alcohol and for the most part the cars will go to government agencies. And when the President arrived at the Senate House in Brasilia to greet journalists, he travelled in his new official car — a Brazilian-built Ford, Ltd, limousine using an alco-hol-powered V 8 engine. At Fiat’s vast Belo Horizonte plant, 1 drove what, for Brazil at least, is the car of the future — an alcohol-fuelled Fiat 147 hatchback, a car that is a close relative of the 127 but with trim variations and tougher suspension to cope with the local conditions. And I have to say that it was no experience at all — there simply is no detectable difference in the engine’s response or behaviour.

The Government hopes that by the early 1980 s, all cars being produced in Brazil will run solely on alcohol. Engines do not need extensive or expensive modification. Alcohol can “pick-up’’ water so anti-corrosion measures have to be taken throughout the fuel system, the carburettor must be adjusted and the compression ratio raised to 12 to one because of the high over 100 octane rating of

alcohol against the 80-ish of local petrol. Starting is normal, though in temperatures below sdeg you fire on petrol and then immediately switch to alcohol. Under the bonnet is a small petrol container, smaller than a windscreen wash reservoir yet containing enough fuel for a whole winter’s cold starts. Every other control is routine, sercicing intervals remain the same, components have the same life; you might detect a different exhaust smell — whicn is also cleaner and less polluting. Production of the alchol powered 147 is just beginning with about 50 a week. The price is 10 per cent more than the normal car — about $6600 against $5900 but this should be quickly recovered with the lower fuel cost. Volkswagen, which holds about half of the local market with Beetles and the Brasilia, an estate looking like a cutback Variant, is adapting both its air cooled 1300 engine and the water-cooled I6oocc. They are aiming at 50 converted engines a day and so Mr Fahrat’s estimate that 10 per cent of next year’s cars will be alcohol powered — that would be about 90,000 — does not look over optimistic.