Brazil Unveils World's First Ethanol-to-Hydrogen Station

[Caribbeans]

Brazil Unveils World’s First Ethanol-to-Hydrogen Station

RioTimesOnline.com | Iolanda Fonseca | February 20, 2025

The University of São Paulo (USP) announced on February 19, 2025, that Brazil now hosts the world’s first experimental station producing renewable hydrogen from ethanol.

Researchers at USP’s Research Center for Innovation in Greenhouse Gases (RCGI) drive this project, funded with 50 million reais ($9.5 million) from Shell Brasil and partners.

This initiative positions Brazil as a potential leader in sustainable energy, leveraging its vast ethanol production from sugarcane. Governor Tarcísio de Freitas visited the pilot plant at USP’s Cidade Universitária campus in São Paulo on Wednesday.

He praised its role in pushing the state’s economy toward a low-carbon future. The facility, spanning 425 square meters, produces 4.5 kilograms of hydrogen hourly, fueling three buses and a Toyota Mirai daily...more
https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-unveils-worlds-first-ethanol-to-hydrogen-station/

Ethanol fuel in Brazil

Brazil produced 26.72 billion liters (7.06 billion U.S. liquid gallons), representing 26.1 percent of the world's total ethanol used as fuel in 2017. Between 2006 and 2008, Brazil was considered to have the world's first "sustainable" biofuels economy and the biofuel industry leader, a policy model for other countries; and its sugarcane ethanol "the most successful alternative fuel to date."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil


A sugar cane field in Brazil


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarcane

Why does the US not use cane sugar?

The only reason why HFCS and other non-cane forms of sugar are used in the US, or anywhere, for sweetening Coke is due to cost. In the US, imported cane sugar is hit with tariffs supposedly to protect the small domestic cane sugar industry, while corn syrup production is subsidized to promote that business.

Why did Maui get rid of sugar cane?

It just made more sense to cash in on tourism rather than stick with sugar. By 2016, the last working sugar mill in Puunene, Maui, closed its doors for good, marking the end of an era for Hawaii's sugar industry.

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