Pessoa Adalberto, Roberto Inês Conceição, Menossi Marcelo, dos Santos Raphael Revert, Filho Sylvio Ortega, Penna Thereza Christina Vessoni
Department of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmaceutical Science, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, No. 580/B16, SP, Brazil.
Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 2005 Spring;121-124:59-70. doi: 10.1385/abab:121:1-3:0059.
Brazil is one of the world's largest producers of alcohol from biomass at low cost and is responsible for more than 1 million direct jobs. In 1973, the Brazilian Program of Alcohol (Proalcool) stimulated the creation of a bioethanol industry that has led to large economic, social, and scientific improvements. In the year 1984, 94.5% of Brazil's cars used bioethanol as fuel. In 2003/2004, 350.3 million of sugarcane produced 24.2 million t of sugar and 14.4 billion L of ethanol for an average 4.3 million cars using ethanol. Since its inception, cumulative investment in Proalcool totals US$11 billion, and Brazil has saved US$27 billion in oil imports. The ethanol production industry from sugarcane gene-rates 152 times more jobs than would have been the case if the same amount of fuel was produced from petroleum, and the use of ethanol as a fuel is advantageous for environmental reasons. In 2003, one of the biggest Brazilian ethanol industries started consuming 50% of the residual sugarcane bagasse to produce electrical energy (60 MW), a new alternative use of bioenergy for the Brazilian market. Other technologies for commercial uses of bagasse are in development, such as in the production of natural fibers, sweeteners (glucose and xylitol), single-cell proteins, lactic acid, microbial enzymes, and many other products based on fermentations (submerged and semisolid). Furthermore, studies aimed at the increase in the biosynthesis of sucrose and, consequently, ethanol productivity are being conducted to understand the genetics of sugarcane. Although, at present, there remain technical obstacles to the economic use of some ethanol industry residues, several research projects have been carried out and useful data generated. Efficient utilization of ethanol industry residues has created new opportunities for new value-added products, especially in Brazil, where they are produced in high quantities.
巴西是世界上以低成本利用生物质生产酒精的最大生产国之一，创造了超过100万个直接就业岗位。1973年，巴西酒精计划（Proalcool）推动了生物乙醇产业的创立，带来了巨大的经济、社会和科学进步。1984年，巴西94.5%的汽车使用生物乙醇作为燃料。2003/2004年，3.503亿吨甘蔗产出了2420万吨糖和144亿升乙醇，供平均430万辆汽车使用乙醇。自成立以来，Proalcool的累计投资总计110亿美元，巴西在石油进口方面节省了270亿美元。甘蔗乙醇生产行业创造的就业岗位比使用等量石油生产燃料时多152倍，而且从环保角度来看，使用乙醇作为燃料具有优势。2003年，巴西最大的乙醇产业之一开始消耗50%的甘蔗渣残余物来生产电能（60兆瓦），这是巴西市场生物能源的一种新的替代用途。甘蔗渣的其他商业用途技术也在研发中，比如生产天然纤维、甜味剂（葡萄糖和木糖醇）、单细胞蛋白、乳酸、微生物酶以及许多其他基于发酵（深层发酵和半固态发酵）的产品。此外，旨在提高蔗糖生物合成量从而提高乙醇生产率的研究正在进行，以了解甘蔗的遗传学特性。尽管目前在一些乙醇产业残余物的经济利用方面仍存在技术障碍，但已经开展了几个研究项目并产生了有用的数据。乙醇产业残余物的高效利用为新的增值产品创造了新机会，尤其是在巴西，那里这些残余物产量很高。
