[HN Gopher] Brazil's cars have run on 'green fuel' for a century...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Brazil's cars have run on 'green fuel' for a century, but not
       without costs
        
       Author : Thevet
       Score  : 63 points
       Date   : 2022-07-29 22:24 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.historytoday.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.historytoday.com)
        
       | jaredhallen wrote:
       | I admittedly don't know much about this byproduct, and I do see
       | mentioned that it's highly acidic. But if it causes algae blooms
       | it makes me wonder if there's some sort of processing opportunity
       | that could repurpose it for fertilizer.
        
         | speeder wrote:
         | My extended family lives near a place where using it as
         | fertilizer is common. It works wonderfully, also it is
         | incredibly smelly, the reason it is used there is because there
         | are no cities there, just gigantic prairies, as soon you get
         | near a city the smell stops (implying people there aren't using
         | it as fertilizer).
        
         | TrueSlacker0 wrote:
         | From Wikipedia
         | 
         | "In the past, vinasse was a problem in production of ethanol,
         | but vinasse is also a good fertilizer (at least for some time)
         | and a source of methane that can be used to generate heat or
         | electricity. Moreover, other uses of vinasse involving also the
         | formulation of nutritive solutions for hydroponics, formulation
         | of culture media for plant tissue culture and culture media for
         | algal growth."
         | 
         | Seems like it's only a problem because it's being dumped and
         | not being purchased for reuse.
        
         | machinerychorus wrote:
         | It's mentioned in the article, but doesn't go into detail about
         | why it hasn't caught on
         | 
         | > Continued problems with vinasse-dumping marred the sugar-
         | ethanol industry's environmental image, even as specialists
         | encouraged repurposing the nitrogen-heavy byproduct as a
         | fertiliser. Today, compliance with anti-dumping legislation is
         | still not effectively enforced.
        
       | littlealpiste wrote:
       | E verdade
        
       | goodpoint wrote:
       | Reminder: biofuels made from corn are not sustainable at all.
       | 
       | They compete against plant agriculture for access to land, making
       | food more expensive.
       | 
       | Often they also use a lot of energy, water and produce CO2 during
       | the farming process.
        
         | jokoon wrote:
         | And they produce co2 anyway.
         | 
         | I don't think they capture as much co2 as they release.
        
         | Kye wrote:
         | Most of Brazil's ethanol is made from sugarcane.
        
         | lvxferre wrote:
         | >Reminder: biofuels made from corn are not sustainable at all.
         | 
         | Reminder: you should read the article before commenting, to not
         | make a fool out of yourself.
         | 
         | Maize is not relevant in this discussion. RTA and you'll see
         | why.
        
       | kkfx wrote:
       | Ethanol have another more important issue: producible quantity.
       | Brazil have peculiar climate in most of the country, it can, most
       | other countries simply can not. That's not a matter of
       | environmental or economical costs but a mere physical feasibility
       | limit.
       | 
       | That's an important aspects too many tend to fail considering,
       | for instance "hey, but we can made antarctic bases with food
       | self-sufficiency", yes, we can, for a single base and very few
       | humans inside. With the work of hundred, thousand of others and a
       | tremendous effort: the fact something is doable and done and does
       | work at a certain scale does not means it can work at every
       | scale.
        
       | danans wrote:
       | Given Brazil's huge hydro power resources and it's huge solar
       | potential, ethanol based plug-in hybrids with smaller (hence less
       | expensive) batteries could be a great way to move off petroleum
       | fuels while also minimizing the use of ethanol.
       | 
       | Of course that might be a hard sell given the importance of the
       | ethanol production industry in the economy.
       | 
       | But it might be a good strategy for countries that don't yet have
       | the purchasing power to support a market for pure EVs.
        
         | Retric wrote:
         | Pure EV's prices keep dropping to the point where oil doesn't
         | look price competitive 5 years from now let alone ethanol.
         | 
         | The 2023 Chevy Bolt has a 247 mile range and a $27,000 MSRP
         | without government incentives. That's still a higher cost of
         | ownership than a _used_ ICE, but things are getting a lot
         | closer. https://www.chevrolet.com/electric/bolt-ev-2023
        
           | golemiprague wrote:
        
           | fragmede wrote:
           | given the markets involved, look at the electric golf-cart
           | sized cars coming out of China for a more competitive price
           | point of several thousand us dollars, far cheaper than
           | something on the us market.
        
           | seibelj wrote:
           | I keep being told EVs being cost effective are right around
           | the corner, yet the prices for clean energy on my electric
           | bill are 35% higher and government subsidies for the industry
           | are never ending.
        
             | lvass wrote:
             | People are also notoriously bad at managing their money. If
             | you have the money and suck at using it, EVs and solar
             | panels make a lot more sense, and you should actually do
             | it, we really need to scale up those industries.
        
               | seibelj wrote:
               | Isn't the amount of mining waste extremely energy
               | intensive to produce a single EV battery?
        
               | danans wrote:
               | Not compared to the lifetime energy intensity of driving
               | a gasoline powered car.
        
               | bergenty wrote:
               | Not even close to even 5 years of fossil fuel usage in a
               | car.
        
               | reidjs wrote:
               | That's mainly a talking point used by oil and gas
               | lobbyists to keep their industry from getting crushed by
               | alternative fuels and EVs
        
               | seibelj wrote:
               | I really don't think they are worried considering coal
               | usage is at an all-time high and the US president is
               | going to dictators begging for oil, hat in hand.
        
               | danans wrote:
               | > the US president is going to dictators begging for oil,
               | hat in hand.
               | 
               | A big advantage of EVs is that presidents of the future
               | shouldn't need to beg for oil as much, as road
               | transportation energy supply market would be largely
               | domestic.
               | 
               | But we clearly aren't there yet.
        
               | mxschumacher wrote:
               | I feel like a broken record at this point, but even if a
               | large part of passenger cars move to electric,
               | industrialized countries still consume incredible amounts
               | of fuel for: all planes, ships, trucks, freight trains,
               | plastics, most fertilizers, heating, electricity
               | production, road building etc
        
               | mxschumacher wrote:
               | Still incredible to consider how much material we'll have
               | to dig out of the ground to deliver hundreds of GW of
               | renewable electricity production potential in the form of
               | solar and wind. For grid scale electricy storage, there's
               | not enough Lithium and cobalt in the Earth's crust to
               | build the needed capacity. Maybe widespread deployment of
               | hydrogen can help
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | > For grid scale electricy storage, there's not enough
               | Lithium and cobalt in the Earth's crust to build the
               | needed capacity.
               | 
               | That's widely incorrect. How exactly much batteries we
               | need, what their chemistry should be is up for some
               | debate as are exact numbers for commercially viable raw
               | materials etc.
               | 
               | But using the numbers from here https://en.wikipedia.org/
               | wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth... and using the
               | deepest mine * land area of earth gives enough lithium to
               | build batteries to store roughly 200 years world of the
               | total electricity generation of the entire planet.
               | 
               | Clearly we are never going to actually mine that much
               | lithium, but just as clearly we don't need anything like
               | that much eitehr.
        
             | Retric wrote:
             | If you're buying a new car today the right EV's can easily
             | have a lower TOC. The used market is based on what was
             | manufactured 5-10+ years ago so it looks very different.
             | 
             | In terms of clean energy, inflation adjusted US wholesale
             | rates fell as we dramatically reduced the grids carbon
             | footprint. 2022 is looking like a major anomaly, but that's
             | in part because natural gas prices are through the roof due
             | to Russia's invasion.
        
             | googlryas wrote:
             | That's probably because you're paying the feel-good tax,
             | and not a true accounting of the costs. Just like how oat
             | milk is more expensive than cow's milk at retail, even
             | though oat milk is almost free to produce relative to cow
             | milk.
        
               | josephcsible wrote:
               | But isn't the price of cow milk held artificially _high_?
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | > I keep being told EVs being cost effective are right
             | around the corner, yet the prices for clean energy on my
             | electric bill are 35% higher
             | 
             | I don't see how that's relevant. The alternative for your
             | house isn't powering it with gasoline.
             | 
             | > and government subsidies for the industry are never
             | ending
             | 
             | You should expect that when it's still "around the corner".
             | 
             | And it could make sense to continue subsidizing EV
             | purchases once prices are similar. Or even beyond that, if
             | you want new-ish EVs to be competitive with a bigger chunk
             | of used gas cars in upfront price.
        
           | mxschumacher wrote:
           | In regards to battery degradation, how much of that range can
           | I expect to see after the first 100000km?
        
             | josephcsible wrote:
             | If you assume the Model S and Model X are representative of
             | other EVs, then about 94% of it:
             | https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-
             | dat...
             | 
             | And keep in mind that degradation is fastest at the
             | beginning, so at 200000km, you have about 92% of what you
             | started with, not the 88% you'd expect if it were linear.
        
               | mxschumacher wrote:
               | Those numbers are phenomenal, hard to believe to be
               | honest. Tesla owners, testing their Tesla's to publish
               | results in a pro Tesla publication isn't exactly what I'm
               | looking for. There must be scientific measurements
               | writeups of these issues.
        
         | lvxferre wrote:
         | >Of course that might be a hard sell given the importance of
         | the ethanol production industry in the economy.
         | 
         | It's less important than it looks like, but it's backed up by a
         | rather nasty political mafia.
         | 
         | At least for SP/PR/SC/RS, a better approach is to simply forget
         | that the Brazilian government exists, and implement measures to
         | reduce fuel consumption. Such as building an actually usable
         | trains infrastructure for goods transportation across cities,
         | and investing further on public transportation for passengers
         | inside large metropolises.
        
         | forinti wrote:
         | We already have dual fuel "flex" engines that run on gasoline,
         | ethanol or any mixture of them.
         | 
         | However, ethanol is too expensive south of Sao Paulo, so it is
         | hardly ever used.
         | 
         | Anyway, a flex/eletric hybrid would be very useful.
        
         | greenthrow wrote:
         | Ethanol is not a good solution. It's extremely inefficient to
         | take solar radiation and turn it into corn, turn the corn into
         | ethanol and then burn the ethanol for mechanical power.
         | 
         | Just turn the solar radiation into electricity and turn that
         | into power. Solar and EVs are here now.
        
           | Carioca wrote:
           | This is sugarcane ethanol and it is _way_ more efficient than
           | corn ethanol
        
             | greenthrow wrote:
             | Not enough more efficient to matter compared to all the
             | other inefficiencies.
        
           | peoplefromibiza wrote:
           | ethanol can be easily stored in large quantities and
           | transported where it is needed
        
             | greenthrow wrote:
             | Electricity is much easier to transport than extremely
             | heavy liquid fuel. Electricity is also easy to store
             | despite what fossil fuel industry propaganda would have you
             | believe.
        
               | peoplefromibiza wrote:
               | > Electricity is also easy to store despite what fossil
               | fuel industry propaganda would have you believe.
               | 
               | no need to assume I believe something because someone
               | fooled me.
               | 
               | Electricity is not easy to transport at all.
               | 
               | It needs infrastructure that might not exist yet in some
               | areas or would require massive investments.
               | 
               | If electricity was so easy to transport we would not buy
               | gas from Russia, we would buy the electricity directly
               | from them.
               | 
               | Simply put: transporting the fuel is easier and cheaper.
               | 
               | Storing it for time of need is also a no brainer.
               | 
               | Not because fossil fuel industry told me, but because it
               | is what it is.
               | 
               | Brasil loses 16% of their power production during
               | distribution.
               | 
               | Don't get me wrong, I love solar energy, I installed
               | solar panels at my house and thanks to State incentives I
               | paid zero of the 35k euros it would have costed, but
               | unfortunately we are not there yet.
               | 
               | http://insideenergy.org/2015/11/06/lost-in-transmission-
               | how-...
        
               | mxschumacher wrote:
               | Completely false, if this were the case we wouldn't be in
               | such trouble. Long duration electricity storage at a
               | large scale and affordable price point is an unsolved
               | problem, it's the holy grail of the renewable energy
               | puzzle.
               | 
               | Transportation of electricity over thousands of
               | kilometers and through oceans is very hard as well.
               | Routine with natural gas.
               | 
               | Maybe best if you get the basics straight before jumping
               | into the discussion.
        
           | danans wrote:
           | > Ethanol is not a good solution. It's extremely inefficient
           | to take solar radiation and turn it into corn, turn the corn
           | into ethanol and then burn the ethanol for mechanical power.
           | 
           | Brazil uses sugar cane, which has better energy yield than
           | corn for ethanol, due to it's higher caloric content. But
           | yes, it is less efficient than direct solar to batteries.
           | 
           | > Just turn the solar radiation into electricity and turn
           | that into power. Solar and EVs are here now.
           | 
           | Yes, but large battery vehicles are still to expensive in
           | developing and middle income countries - they are just now
           | getting affordable to the masses in developed countries.
           | 
           | A smaller battery could easily offset 50-80% of ethanol
           | fueled miles because most daily drives are short, so a
           | smaller affordable PHEV with a 20kWh battery could offset a
           | lot of liquid fuel usage.
        
             | greenthrow wrote:
             | Sugar cane's advantage over corn is not enough to fix the
             | underlying inefficiency of the entire chain.
        
               | danans wrote:
               | Which is why PHEVs could be a way to minimize dependency
               | on that chain without requiring everyone to purchase an
               | EV with an 80kWh+ battery.
        
           | speeder wrote:
           | Brazillian Ethanol is made with Sugar Cane, not corn. And it
           | is reasonably efficient, much better than corn ethanol that
           | is just stupid.
           | 
           | To make corn ethanol you get an energy loss actually, the
           | energy usage to grow and process the corn, for example to
           | power the tractors and so on, is bigger than the energy you
           | can get burning it.
           | 
           | US government solution for this is spetacularly boneheaded
           | too.
           | 
           | So USA has so much corn because it has corn subsidies. This
           | is the reason for USA using the terrible for health corn
           | syrup too instead of sugar from cane.
           | 
           | Then USA government decided to give ethanol subsidies to
           | incentive green fuels.
           | 
           | Result is people make corn ethanol, get 2 subsidies, pollute
           | a bit and cause a net energy loss.
           | 
           | So USA government decided solution was give a even bigger
           | subsidy to sugar cane ethanol.
           | 
           | Result is Brazillians make sugar cane ethanol, sell to US
           | companies, those companies collect the subsidy from it, buy
           | corn ethanol that has 2 subsidies on that thus is extra
           | cheap, sell back to Brazillians.
           | 
           | So now you have USA government giving 3 subsidies that result
           | in people making a ton of corn ethanol, causing energy loss,
           | and shipping it to Brazil, while Brazillians ship cane
           | ethanol back, the shipping in question being done with Diesel
           | ships.
           | 
           | Sometimes I wonder what the fuck is wrong with USA government
           | to think that such decisions are good idea, wasting a ton of
           | taxpayer money on energy losing production process and
           | encouraging Diesel-based ocean shipping all in the name of
           | "green".
           | 
           | It is not MY tax money though (I am Brazillian) so it is not
           | like I can do anything about it.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | greenthrow wrote:
             | Sugar cane ethanol still has incredible energy losses.
             | Processing it into ethanol is an energy loss. Transporting
             | it is a huge energy loss. And burning it is the worst. ICE
             | engines are _at best_ 28% efficient. That 's a 70% loss.
        
               | Dylan16807 wrote:
               | You're too focused on 'efficiency' here. The two
               | processes are so wildly different that a 70% loss at
               | certain stages isn't a big deal.
               | 
               | A solar panel loses more than 70% of the power that hits
               | it. But that doesn't disqualify it at all.
               | 
               | And plants lose a ridiculous percent of energy right at
               | the photosynthesis stage, but they'd still beat solar
               | panels if solar panel prices went back a few decades.
        
           | mxschumacher wrote:
           | Importantly ethanol can be transported over vast distances
           | and stored for long periods of time, both incredible and
           | persistent challenges for electricity.
        
           | chitowneats wrote:
           | Please read TFA. Corn is not mentioned.
           | 
           | Makes me wonder if your comment is literal copypasta, or
           | merely figurative copypasta from US ecoactivism.
        
             | greenthrow wrote:
             | Corn vs sugar doesn't matter. It's all the other steps that
             | make ethanol not worth it. I should have said sugar in my
             | comment to be accurate to the article, but by far most
             | ethanol is made from corn due to US corn subsidies which is
             | why I mentioend corn.
        
               | Maursault wrote:
               | > Corn vs sugar doesn't matter.
               | 
               | It really does. Corn ethanol takes a unit of fossil fuel
               | to produce 1.3 units of ethanol, while sugar cane
               | produces 9 units of ethanol for the same single unit of
               | fossil fuel. I'm not sure what happened to switchgrass,
               | but it's reportedly twice as efficient at producing
               | ethanol as sugar cane, 20:1.
               | 
               | Ethanol isn't a terrible idea, depending on its source
               | (corn is bad, while sugar cane, sugar beets and
               | switchgrass are good). The infrastructure is already in
               | place, takes little cost or effort to convert a petrol
               | vehicle to ethanol, and ethanol provides better
               | performance in ICE vehicles than petroleum, though at the
               | cost of slightly less milage. I think losing a little
               | milage is a small price to pay for better performance,
               | clean air, and no contribution to Climate Change.
        
               | chitowneats wrote:
               | It's hard to appreciate a good kludge. They can be very
               | useful though in certain circumstances.
        
           | forinti wrote:
           | You're right, but a tank of ethanol will take you farther
           | than batteries.
        
             | Retric wrote:
             | When EV's are hitting 350+ mile ranges that's becoming
             | irrelevant.
        
               | Gordonjcp wrote:
               | Let me know when I can buy a 350-mile EV for 750 quid. So
               | far that's how much the most expensive car I have ever
               | bought cost.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | 750 quid doesn't exactly cover fuel.
        
               | peoplefromibiza wrote:
               | but it works and before you spent 40k on fuel EVs are
               | going to be a lot cheaper.
        
               | peoplefromibiza wrote:
               | but we are yet far from it, so it is not irrelevant.
               | 
               | cars that run on ethanol are also cheaper than EVs and
               | are going to stay cheaper for a long time.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | Cheaper upfront, the problem is how much ethanol and
               | gasoline costs. It's the same reason people put solar on
               | their roof, sure it costs more on day 1 but for most
               | people lowering the electric bill more than compensates.
        
               | peoplefromibiza wrote:
               | TCO is not so relevant if you don't have the upfront
               | money.
               | 
               | Reason why not many people buy new houses with lower TCO,
               | they prefer to spend a bit more every month to heat/cool
               | them, because they can squeeze the money out of their
               | monthly budget, than spend 3x upfront.
               | 
               | Solar panels are also heavily subsidized almost
               | everywhere.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | Unless you're paying cash for a house or car it's the
               | monthly payment that's important more than the upfront
               | cost.
               | 
               | I don't know what the Brazil mortgage market is like, but
               | having a mortgage that's larger and a keeping your other
               | bills much smaller should be a net win without spending
               | more out of pocket.
        
               | peoplefromibiza wrote:
               | that's for sure and I agree
               | 
               | Speaking of my country, if you ask for a mortgage you
               | usually have to put at least 20% of the total upfront and
               | the bank can deny it for lack of guarantees or it's too
               | large for your pockets.
               | 
               | So on average people prefer to spend less than spend more
               | and amortizing the difference in the future.
               | 
               | For that reason there's been a quite successful program
               | of State incentives in .y country to install solar panels
               | or increase energy efficiency of buildings so that it
               | would cost people zero or close to zero to upgrade .
               | 
               | Otherwise people would have wait for the prices to drop a
               | lot more than they are right now.
        
               | fooker wrote:
               | These are EVs which cost ~3-5x the price of the average
               | car though.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | Tagbert wrote:
               | 2023 Chevy Bolt EV with 259 mile range has a starting
               | price of $25,600
        
               | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
               | 259 miles is also less than 350+ miles
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | Average new car in the US costs more than 40k so it's not
               | a 3x price premium.
               | 
               | They aren't cheap but that's about what car companies are
               | selling not the technology. People view 350 mile ranges
               | as a luxury feature but they don't require that much
               | extra battery over a 250 mile range.
        
               | lvass wrote:
               | Average new car in brazil is 12~15k and that includes a
               | ton of taxes, EVs are often 6~10x price premium as
               | they're also heavily taxed. They're also used 30+ years
               | which would mean like 6 battery replacements, the
               | batteries alone would likely cost more than a whole car
               | plus it's lifetime fuel in Brazil unless it's a heavily
               | used vehicle like a shift-rented uber.
               | 
               | I suspect the battery manufacturing would also be far
               | worse than the lifetime of alcohol for the environment,
               | but that depends a lot on how each is made.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | Batteries are lasting much longer as the pack sizes
               | increase and chemistry improves. Unless you're planning
               | on driving 1 million miles you shouldn't need to replace
               | the battery on a long range EV.
               | 
               | Meanwhile paying for 30 years of gas adds up, especially
               | when fuel economy decreases with age.
        
               | peoplefromibiza wrote:
               | > Meanwhile paying for 30 years of gas adds up,
               | 
               | I've seen this point come up a lot.
               | 
               | The energy used to recharge batteries right now is being
               | mostly produced using traditional means of power
               | production, mostly fossil.
               | 
               | So in the end we are only shifting costs, not really
               | saving.
               | 
               | Another important point not being discussed is that used
               | vehicles are dirty cheap (easily under 1k) and can still
               | run with very little engine maintenance with the only
               | cost being fuel.
               | 
               | With the energy crisis we are living, I'm not sure EV are
               | going to cost so much less than ICE to operate.
               | 
               | If you need to change tires or get into an accident and
               | the car needs repairs, it doesn't matter if it's an EV or
               | an ICE,
               | 
               | You still have to pay for it and probably the EV cannot
               | be repaired by a gas station mechanic.
               | 
               | The same gas station worker might lose business due to
               | EVs becoming more popular and that's not gonna be cheap
               | economically and socially.
               | 
               | Before it's gonna be cheaper, we need to completely
               | overhaul the way transport economics works.
               | 
               | I don't have the slightest idea of how long it is gonna
               | take, but it's not gonna be tomorrow.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | Environmentally a great deal of CO2 comes from to
               | extracting crude oil, transport, refine, and distribute
               | gasoline. Roughly 1kg of CO2 per gallon of gas is
               | released just in the refining process while 8.9kg comes
               | from actually burning the fuel.
               | 
               | Next out of global electricity production 16% is hydro,
               | 10.3% nuclear, 5.3% is wind, and solar is 2.5%. And wind
               | and solar numbers are rapidly trending upwards. The 23%
               | from Natural gas is also vastly cleaner both from
               | extremely efficient turbines and because of inherent
               | advantages to the fuel.
               | 
               | It's only the 36.7% that from coal where the numbers come
               | close while still slightly favoring EV's per mile.
        
               | lvass wrote:
               | >It's only the 36.7% that from coal where the numbers
               | come close
               | 
               | The problem is, when you add that demand to your power
               | grid, is that increasing the supply of hydro, nuclear,
               | wind, or solar? In practice, the extra demand from EVs
               | only increases the correlated amount of coal used as that
               | is where the excess of potential electricity generation
               | is, for now.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | I don't know about other countries but for US and China
               | coal is significantly underrepresented in new power plant
               | construction relative to it's share of total production.
               | 
               | The US hasn't built a large coal plant recently and none
               | are currently planned.
               | https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=30812
               | 
               | Looking at the number being decommissioned over the next
               | few years it doesn't seem like EV transition is really
               | changing anything.
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coal-
               | fired_power_stati...
        
               | peoplefromibiza wrote:
               | Completely agree on all the points, we burn oil in ICE
               | engines simply because it's ready for direct use, but
               | what if we switched to natural gas fueled cars?
               | 
               | ICE engines can easily be adapted to use it, the
               | infrastructure for gas pumps is already in place, I do
               | not own a car but when I need one I use my mother's car
               | that runs on methane gas.
               | 
               | Of course EV fueled by 100% green energy is the future we
               | all hope for, but I wouldn't discard the economic
               | advantage, especially in less developed countries, of
               | cheap cars that run on greener fuel.
               | 
               | There are also many countries like China or Germany that
               | are heavily reliant on coal for energy production right
               | now, because it makes it easier to adapt the output to
               | the demand, maybe a more mixed approach instead of "EV or
               | die" could lead to a faster transition curve toward less
               | CO2 intensive vehicles and one that is economically more
               | feasible on a global scale.
               | 
               | I also doubt Brazil will be full of Tesla anytime soon.
        
               | greenthrow wrote:
               | That is not remotely true and hasn't been true for about
               | a decade.
        
       | lvxferre wrote:
       | For those wondering: vinasse is the crap left after you distil
       | the fermented mass, to retrieve the alcohol. It should not be an
       | issue, because as mentioned by the text it's a good fertiliser;
       | however law enforcement in most of the Americas does not fucking
       | work, and Brazil is a prime example of that - if it's cheaper to
       | dump it into the river than to store and resell it then producers
       | will do it, laws be damned.
       | 
       | Another issue (not mentioned by the text) is that long-term
       | sugarcane farming desertifies the environment where it's grown.
       | Yeah - it is not sustainable in the long run.
        
         | Groxx wrote:
         | I'm always kinda stunned by how destructive people can be when
         | money is involved.
         | 
         | I'm not _surprised_ , I completely expect it and do what I can
         | to mitigate it. But it's still shocking. What kind of sociopath
         | builds something and decides "I'll throw this leftover crap
         | where others drink" for _decades_? And why do they have so much
         | power, so frequently?
        
         | routerl wrote:
         | Here's another example that I ran into in Brazil, and ended up
         | making and selling a business out of.
         | 
         | Whey, the by-product of dairy manufacturing, is most cheaply
         | disposed of by feeding to pigs. The excess the pigs can't eat
         | is supposed to be safely disposed of, but this is often deemed
         | too costly, and it ends up in the river. A bribe to the right
         | official will be cheaper anyway.
         | 
         | So I started to buy the stuff, for pennies per decalitre.
         | Dairies didn't have to bribe officials anymore, and the river
         | is spared. My refrigerated truck then brought this enormous
         | amount of whey to my nanofiltration pump (setup with the help
         | of a local chemical engineer), where we split it into Whey
         | Protein Isolate, which is the powder bodybuilders drink. I then
         | became a local supplier for the (at the time) only South
         | American company that produced and marketed protein powders in
         | Brazil, sold my share of the business, and came home a slightly
         | wealthier man.
         | 
         | Every stage of this was a nightmare. The uses of whey have been
         | well documented in the literature since the 1920's, and the
         | equipment is cheap. In engineering terms, it's a completely
         | solved problem. But the bureaucracy....
        
           | em-bee wrote:
           | in austria whey is flavored with fruit and sold as a soft
           | drink
        
             | chitowneats wrote:
             | Is it any good? The taste?
        
           | dr_dshiv wrote:
           | Can you share a story about the bureaucracy and how you'd
           | improve it?
        
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