The future of ethanol in Cuba
Now that the seemingly immortal Fidel Castro has finally stepped aside in Cuba, a whole new set of questions arises. At some point, the U.S. trade embargo my finally be lifted after more than four decades, opening the possibility of trade with the island nation. In the years B.C. (before Castro) Cuba was the world's sugar producer but the intervening years have not been kind to the industry. Cane production is one tenth of what it once was. The development of a whole new market beyond crystallized sucrose and Bacardi may well play a part in revitalizing the Cuban economy in future years. Land use studies of the island have concluded that Cuba could produce 2-3 billion gallons of cane ethanol annually. The relatively small local demand means that most of the biofuel could be exported, earning the country a lot of hard currency. It's only a small fraction of what the U.S. needs, but it's a start. If cellulosic processes that could utilize more of the biomass are developed, the export amount could potentially be a lot more. We'll just have to wait and see.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve 3:02PM (2/20/2008)
Am I supposed to be happy about this? Ethanol is NOT carbon-neutral, cellulosic or not. And cellulosic, while better for food prices, leeches the vital nutrients from the soil, eventually resulting in fallow land.
Ethanol is crap. Stop pushing it just because corn farmers in Iowa think it's "green."
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Mike Z 3:13PM (2/20/2008)
To put that in Context, that would be 130,000 Barrels a day of ethanol production. I'm willing to bet that if they start off-shore drilling in Cuba, they will produce more oil than that.
On the other side, as far as I know Florida receives it's gasoline mainly via tankers into the ports in Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville, and in many cases goes right on to tanker trucks for delivery to service stations in the area. In other words, there could well be a very large market area without the need to worry about transporting the stuff. (I smell a business opportunity!)
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Karen Pease 3:18PM (2/20/2008)
[quote]Am I supposed to be happy about this? Ethanol is NOT carbon-neutral, cellulosic or not[/quote]
Nothing is carbon neutral, not even solar, so that's not a very good argument to make. Want to use the term, "carbon negative to manufacture"? Then, according to the recent study, the only two that were not negative (and there have been some criticisms of the methodology that arrived at even this conclusion) are corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass *grown on corn lands*. It didn't cover switchgrass grown on wasteland (which is where growing switchgrass is typically proposed), and actually *advocated* cellulosic ethanol made from waste matter.
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Emil 5:05PM (2/20/2008)
Dear Sam,
To my best knowledge, sugar production in Cuba flourished also in first decades of Castro's rule.But the main market was the Eastern Bloc and it collapsed about 20 years ago.
I'm sure Brazil can help Cuba in this issue a lot. And USA can get an excellent substitute of oil.
Also there is nothing to worry about the competition with corn ethanol - with today's oil prices the demand for ethanol will only grow further and further.
And of course it is better to support non-hostile neighbours rather than guys like Chavez.
Of course sugar ethanol isn't a perfect solution. But is it better to import more and more oil ?
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rgseidl 1:29PM (2/21/2008)
Fidel may have stepped down but his brother Raoul is firmly in charge. Nothing has really changed for the people of Cuba. If the US does reconsider its decades-old embargo, it won't be because it's leader is no longer Fidel.
Cuba doesn't need to produce ethanol fuel for local consumption as it gets cheap oil from Venezuela. Exports to the US would be viable only if in addition to resuming normal trade relations, Congress also decided to expand the Caribbean Basin Initiative to include Cuba. The CBI is a loophole in the US' 54 cent/gallon protectionist tariff imposed on ethanol imports, one that Midwestern politicians are already trying to close on behalf of farm interests.
http://www.gulfethanolinc.com/docs/RS21930.pdf
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1106
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Wise Golden 10:54PM (2/21/2008)
Allowing the importation of ethanol will certainly result in the destruction of the rain forest, given time.
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