Feed aggregator

L’événement pro-vaccin, qui affichait complet, n’a réuni que la moitié des spectateurs attendus. La fréquentation a tout de même été trois fois plus importante que lors du concert à Lausanne.

The biofuel from this mini biogas power plant in the municipality of Entre Rios do Oeste, in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, is supplied by local pig farmers, who earn extra income while the municipality saves on energy costs for its facilities and public lighting. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 11 2021 (IPS)

The number of victims of serious burns, some fatal, has increased in Brazil. Without money to buy cooking gas, the price of which rose 30 percent this year, many poor families resort to ethanol and people are injured in household accidents.

A larger number of poor Brazilians have returned to using firewood, less explosive but also a cause of accidents and of health-damaging household pollution. It is cheaper in the countryside, while in the cities people burn boards and old furniture, not always as widely available as alcohol or ethanol, which can be purchased at any gas station.

In fact, biofuels, such as wood, ethanol, biodiesel and biogas, have been competing with fossil fuels since the industrial use of coal began in England in the 18th century. Economic and environmental factors influence private and public decision-making with regard to their production and use.

A commitment made by 103 countries at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) on Climate Change, which is taking place in the Scottish city of Glasgow during the first 12 days of November, to reduce methane emissions from 2020 levels 30 percent by 2030, may now give biofuels a new boost.

Replacing oil, gas and coal with other sources will help contribute to that goal.

“In Brazil, the demand for ethanol was imposed for economic reasons: high oil prices; and energy reasons: the risk of shortages,” said Regis Leal, an aeronautical engineer and specialist in Technological Development at the state-owned National Laboratory of Biorenewables.

Ethanol in the seventies

Ethanol is a fuel produced from sugarcane, corn or any vegetable with a high sucrose content, which is mainly used in motor vehicles. Brazil is the world’s second largest producer of ethanol, after the United States.

The National Alcohol Programme (Proalcohol) was created in Brazil in 1975, two years after the first big oil crisis that more than tripled the price of a barrel of oil. Brazil, which at the time imported more than 80 percent of the crude oil it consumed, lost the momentum of an economy that had grown by more than 10 percent per year between 1968 and 1973.

With alcohol or ethanol replacing gasoline or mixed with it, the aim was to reduce dependence on imported oil, while intensifying the search for hydrocarbon deposits for self-sufficiency, which Brazil only achieved three decades later.

This sugar mill and ethanol distillery are in the southern Brazilian state of São Paulo, much of whose territory has been turned into one large sugarcane field. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

In the United States, the use of ethanol began to be fomented in the 1980s, but for environmental reasons, Leal told IPS in an interview by telephone from Campinas, a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo, near the country’s largest sugar and ethanol-producing area.

In cities located at high altitudes, such as Denver, the capital of the western U.S. state of Colorado, at 1,600 metres above sea level, lower oxygen levels lead to incomplete combustion of petroleum derivatives and, consequently, greater carbon monoxide contamination and health damage, he explained.

Mixing in MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether), a combination of chemicals, added oxygen, but because it was a highly toxic product it was soon replaced by ethanol, made from corn in the case of the U.S.

In both Brazil and the United States, biofuel production also bolstered or stabilised the price of sugar and corn by absorbing surplus production.

This is an aspect that is misunderstood by those who condemn biofuel production for apparently reducing food production. This is a false dilemma, because it must be analysed on a case-by-case basis, said Suani Coelho, coordinator of the Bioenergy Research Group (GBio) of the Energy and Environment Institute at the University of São Paulo.

“In Tanzania, a FAO (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation) study evaluated the production of ethanol from manioc. The hypothesis seemed doubtful, also because the energy balance of cassava is not so good. But in Tanzania there is a surplus of the crop that cannot be exported. So it is worth taking advantage of it to make ethanol,” said Coelho, a chemical engineer with a doctorate in energy.

In Brazil, where ethanol is made almost exclusively from the more locally productive sugarcane, corn was incorporated in the industry in 2017, with a distillery in Lucas do Rio Verde, in the state of Mato Grosso, the country’s largest producer of soybeans, corn and cotton.

Lucas do Rio Verde is in the state of Mato Grosso, the region of Brazil with the highest soybean and corn production, which is crowded with agribusiness warehouses and silos. The first corn ethanol distillery was set up there to take advantage of the surplus corn production. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

“Corn is produced there as a second crop, after soybeans, in the same area, in a volume that is not viable for export. So it makes sense to use it for ethanol,” she told IPS by telephone from São Paulo.

Ethanol led to a great improvement in the urban environment.

In Brazil it has already replaced 46 percent of gasoline, according to the sugarcane industry association (Unica), with an annual production of 35 billion litres. It is used as fuel alone in motor vehicles or as a 27 percent blend in gasoline.

The United States produces 50 to 70 percent more than Brazil, depending on the year. Together, they account for about 84 percent of world production, a level of concentration that hinders free international trade in ethanol.

Biofuels or electrification

Coelho and Leal do not agree with the claim that the electrification of transportation tends to hinder the expansion of biofuels to other countries and major producers.

Developing countries do not have the capacity to make large investments to build new infrastructure, such as electric recharging points for vehicles. Moreover, “Brazil is going through a crisis, it is increasing fossil fuel thermoelectric generation, making the energy mix dirtier, and it has no other way to increase the supply of electricity,” argued Coelho.

Leal said the demand for ethanol can grow a great deal. “Any increase in its blend in the United States, which accounts for half of the world’s gasoline consumption, will have a huge impact,” he said.

The ethanol expert also questions the environmental and climatic advantages of electric vehicles, taking into consideration the entire production cycle, transportation, batteries, employment and other aspects.

View of a vast oil palm plantation in Tailandia, a municipality in the state of Pará, in Brazil’s eastern Amazon rainforest. The intent to turn palm oil into biodiesel did not work out, because the oil serves a more attractive market in the food and chemical industries. CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

Biodiesel was not as successful as ethanol, but it also improved the urban environment and has a future, with some additional effort.

It is produced from vegetable or animal oils, even used, and other fatty materials.

Its main problem is that it is more expensive and therefore cannot compete with diesel fuel in order to replace it, Leal pointed out. Currently the diesel blend has been reduced from 12 to 10 percent, so as not to further drive up the cost of diesel fuel, the price of which is rising worldwide.

Another biofuel, which has been around for a long time but is now expanding, is biogas.

It is not only clean, but actually helps to reduce pollution, since it is the gas generated from garbage, wastewater, agricultural waste and animal excrement, which is no longer released into the air, thus reducing greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Its use is incipient in Brazil, but it has the potential to replace 70 percent of the diesel fuel consumed in the country, at a lower cost, according to the Brazilian Biogas Association. And big cities and the country’s enormous agricultural sector offer plenty of raw materials.

By means of a simple refining process, biogas is converted into biomethane, equivalent to natural gas and, therefore, a fuel that can even be used to run heavy vehicles. If used for electricity generation, it could meet 36 percent of national demand, the association of companies in the sector estimates.

Small biodigesters produce biogas that could prevent the use of firewood and ethanol, and the resultant accidents and pollution, among poor families, especially in the countryside, noted Coelho.

“Appropriate public policies and low-interest loans for investments” could boost biogas and its environmental benefits, at a time when international financial institutions are cutting financing for coal-fired and other fossil fuel power plants, Leal said.

The two experts stressed that all these biofuels play an important role in making green hydrogen, produced from renewable energy sources, viable and recognised as central to the world’s energy future.

Biofuels have served humanity since its earliest past, not always in a sustainable way. The first was firewood, on which 2.8 billion people in the world still depend, according to an October 2020 World Bank report. But it is environmentally unsound, and leads to deforestation and household pollution.

The oils and resins that illuminated cities and homes in centuries past, before the advent of electricity, were also destructive. Oils extracted from whale blubber and from the eggs of Amazonian turtles are examples, almost driving certain species to extinction.

Après une longue absence, qui a fait oublier jusqu’à leur existence, voilà que les trains de nuit reprennent enfin du service du côté de la SNTF. Cette reprise, qui coïncide avec l’accalmie que connait la situation sanitaire en Algérie, a été annoncé par le ministère du transport.

En effet, le département du ministre Aissa Bekkai, dans un communiqué de presse paru aujourd’hui, a indiqué « qu’en application de la décision des hautes autorités concernant la reprise progressive des moyens de transport, suite à l’amélioration de la situation sanitaire, le ministère du Transport annonce le retour des trains de nuits avec dortoirs  sur les lignes habituelles ».

Le communiqué du ministre a également dévoilé le programme qui va régir le retour de ces trains de nuit longtemps attendus par les voyageurs algériens adeptes des longs trajets. Ces derniers, qui ont été confrontés pendant plusieurs mois au gel des transports publics, dont les taxis collectifs, vont se réjouir de la reprise des trains nocturnes à grandes distances.

Retour des trains nocturnes : le programme du ministère

Le communiqué souligne que le retour des trains de nuit se fera sur deux étapes, et ce, afin de respecter le caractère progressif de la reprise préconisé par les hautes autorités, mais aussi par le comité scientifique.

La première étape, toujours selon le communiqué du ministère concerne la ligne Alger – Touggourt et celle de Oran – Bécher. La reprise de ces deux lignes va se faire à partir du dimanche 21 novembre.

La deuxième étape, ajoute la même source, concerne les lignes Annaba – Alger et Tebessa – Alger. Cette étape entrera en service à partir du dimanche 28 novembre.

L’article SNTF : les trains de nuit reprennent du service est apparu en premier sur .

Le ministre de l'agriculture de l'élevage et de la pêche Gaston Dossouhoui et la ministre de l'industrie et du commerce Shadiya Alimatou Assouman, ont procédé au lancement officiel de la commercialisation du coton graine au titre de la campagne 2021-2022. C'est le jeudi 11 novembre 2021 à N'Dali, dans le département du Borgou.

Les prévisions de production du coton graine au titre de la campagne 2021-2022 sont estimées à plus de 766.000 tonnes, a fait savoir, Gaston Dossouhoui, ministre de l'agriculture de l'élevage et de la pêche lors du lancement de la campagne de commercialisation 2021-2022 à N'dali. Occasion pour le ministre d'encourager tous les acteurs de la chaîne à savoir égreneurs, transporteurs à s'impliquer pour l'atteinte de cette prévision. « Chers acteurs de la filière coton ; je voudrais donc vous encourager où que vous vous situerez dans la chaîne de la filière depuis les champs, les marchés autogérés, dans le transport, dans les usines jusqu'au port de Cotonou à œuvrer en toute circonstance à la préservation du patrimoine national que constitue le coton et à veiller à éviter toutes les pratiques nuisibles à la qualité du coton ainsi que les dégâts récurrents souvent occasionnés par les incendies », a indiqué Gaston Dossouhoui, ministre de l'agriculture de l'élevage et de la pêche, jeudi 11 novembre 2021. Le ministre a précisé que le lancement de la commercialisation du coton graine permettra aux marchés autogérés de coton graine, les villages, les routes nationales inter-communes et les pistes cotonnières de connaitre beaucoup de mouvements. « Une fois encore, plus de treize villes et agglomérations environnantes grouilleront pendant plus de six mois. Au total le pays va bouger », explique le ministre.

Les efforts en amont
De nouvelles unités d'égrenage ont été mises en place et celles existantes ont connu des extensions. Au total, 23 usines d'égrenage viennent renforcer le parc industriel. La capacité d'égrenage est passée de 612 500 tonnes à 832 500 tonnes au titre de la campagne 2021-2022, selon les explications du ministre de l'agriculture.
Pour Shadiya Alimatou Assouman, ministre de l'industrie et du commerce, de la mise aux normes des ponts bascules au aux opérations de pesées sur les marchés, tout est fin prêt pour une campagne réussie.
« Tous les instruments de mesure révisés et destinés à être utilisés pour les différentes transactions doivent faire l'objet de vérification par l'Agence Nationale de Normalisation, de Métrologie et du Contrôle de Qualité (ANM). C'est pourquoi, j'invite instamment les Coopératives Villageoises de Producteurs de Coton (CVPC) qui n'ont pas encore assuré le convoyage des bascules aux lieux de regroupement à le réaliser dans les brefs délais », a exhorté la ministre de l'industrie et du commerce Shadiya Alimatou Assouman.
Marc MENSAH

The President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, is in Rome (Italy) today to meet with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Finance Minister Daniele Franco and Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri.

Die EU hat eine Erklärung abgegeben, in der sie das belarussische Regime für die gezielte Instrumentalisierung von Menschen für politische Zwecke und für die Verschärfung der Krise an den Außengrenzen der EU entschieden verurteilt.

Le président du Conseil européen Charles Michel a tenu une conférence de presse conjointe avec le premier ministre polonais Mateusz Morawiecki à Varsovie à propos de la situation à la frontière entre la Pologne et la Biélorussie.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Erklärung des Hohen Vertreters im Namen der Europäischen Union zur Erklärung einiger Drittländer, sich dem Beschluss (GASP) 2021/1800 des Rates vom 11. Oktober 2021 zur Änderung des Beschlusses (GASP) 2019/1720 über restriktive Maßnahmen angesichts der Lage in Nicaragua anzuschließen

Press briefings ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council meetings of 15 and 16 November will take place on 12 November 2021.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Press briefing ahead of the upcoming Agriculture and Fisheries Council will take place on 11 November 2021 at 10.00.

The President of the Eurogroup, Paschal Donohoe, is in Rome (Italy) today to meet with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Finance Minister Daniele Franco and Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri.

Az EU nyilatkozatot adott ki, amelyben határozottan elítéli a belarusz rezsimet annak okán, hogy politikai célok érdekében szervezetten használ fel embereket, valamint hogy válságot szít az Unió külső határain.

Le président du Conseil européen Charles Michel a tenu une conférence de presse conjointe avec le premier ministre polonais Mateusz Morawiecki à Varsovie à propos de la situation à la frontière entre la Pologne et la Biélorussie.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

A főképviselőnek az Európai Unió nevében tett nyilatkozata egyes harmadik országoknak a nicaraguai helyzetre tekintettel hozott korlátozó intézkedésekről szóló (KKBP) 2019/1720 határozat módosításáról szóló, 2021. október 11-i (KKBP) 2021/1800 tanácsi határozathoz történő csatlakozásáról.

Press briefings ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council meetings of 15 and 16 November will take place on 12 November 2021.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Press briefing ahead of the upcoming Agriculture and Fisheries Council will take place on 11 November 2021 at 10.00.