Bioethanol - Brazil, 30 years of Proalcool

Brazil, which has always been in the forefront of sugarcane production, also occupies a prominent position as the first country to produce and use biofuel in its automobile fleet. This fact is a consequence of the introduction of a program which has already turned 30 years, the Proalcool (National Alcohol Program). The oil crisis in the seventies encouraged the government to develop an alternative way to replace gasoline. Bioethanol was then born as fuel obtained from fermentation of sugarcane juice, molasses or both. In the eighties, 85% of the cars ran exclusively on alcohol. Ethanol production in that decade exceeded sugarcane production by the mills. The installed units reached in that period the capacity to produce 18 billion liters of bioethanol per season, a volume equivalent to 100 million barrels of gasoline. The fermentation process, which so far had been restricted to manufacturing sugarcane liquor (aguardente) or ethanol as a byproduct of sugarcane, takes over the spotlight in the entrepreneurial scene. As a result, processes comprising engineering concepts came up and most of the biological phenomena involved in fermentation were understood. The knowledge gathered and the units installed have granted Brazil the hold of production technology and use of a clean fuel.109129919520

Use of penicillin and monensin to control bacterial contamination of Brazilian alcohol fermentations

The effects of the antibiotics monensin and penicillin on contaminants of alcohol-producing fermentations were investigated. Three strains of Bacillus and three of Lactobacillus isolated from Brazilian industrial fermentation units were tested. The growth of all the microorganisms studied was inhibited, when at the lowest dosages of antibiotics applied. Sugar tosses were only detectable in the absence of the antibiotics, and they differed according to the bacterial strain present. For the first 23 hours of the trials populations of all the strains tested declined in the presence of either antibiotic, at all three concentrations applied. In the following 23 hours the Bacilli showed signs of growth in the presence of penicillin, but not monensin, L, plantarum populations recovered somewhat in the two fewest concentrations tested of both antibiotics. Populations of the other two Lactobacillus species continued to decline at all three concentrations of both antibiotics. Penicillin appeal-ed to be most effective over short contact times, and monensin more efficient with prolonged contact - suggesting that use of the two antibiotics in combination may be advantageous.102121478