Corn Ethanol in Brazil: Analyzing the Prospect of Becoming a Widespread Practice in South America

This study aimed at analyzing the corn ethanol production in South America, more specifically the Brazilian experiences during the last decade. The evaluation of various experiences and calculations of the most representative variables on the subject showed that in the short and medium term, there are no conditions for corn ethanol becoming a widespread practice, neither in Brazil nor in any other South American country. A comparative analysis was conducted considering three variables: Leveled Cost of Fuel (LCOF); Energy Return on Investment (EROI) and Land use. The LCOF calculations show that corn ethanol LCOF is 43% cheaper in Mato Grosso State (MT) than in Sao Paulo State (SP). Corn ethanol's LCOF is 2.8 times and 1.26 times cheaper than the sugarcane ethanol LCOF in SP and MT states, respectively. Sugarcane ethanol EROI is 27% higher than corn ethanol EROI. For land use, it took 18 x 10(6) ha to produce 1,054,858 L of corn ethanol in MT during the 2019 harvesting season. This surface is 1 x 10(6) hectares bigger than the area used to produce the same amount of sugarcane ethanol.