Mexico eyes Brazil's ethanol program to cut pollution

20 July 2004 22:49  [Source: ICIS news]

SAO PAULO (CNI)--Mexico is studying Brazil's ethanol program with an eye to using the fuel additive to reduce pollution and increase sugar cane sales, President Vicente Fox said Tuesday.

 

President Fox recently returned from an official visit to Brazil and is working on implementing an ethanol program similar to the one in Brazil.

 

Fox said that a team of Pemex specialists is in Brazil studying the country’s ethanol program. Pemex will be working with Petrobras on the new ethanol program.

 

In addition to the environmental impact cited by Fox in the radio address, he also said that the program would help Mexico’s sugar industry, which produces more than the domestic market has the capacity to absorb. Ethanol can be made from sugar cane, as well as corn.

 

Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, who also participated in the radio address, said that if the country added 10% of ethanol to its gasoline, it would significantly improve the air quality, particularly in Mexico City. In Brazil, ethanol makes up 25% of gasoline.

 

Several other countries, including Thailand, India, China and Japan have expressed interest in Brazil’s ethanol program.

 

Brazil is the largest ethanol producer in the world. The country produced 8.16m tonne of ethanol in 2003.

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