RFA wants Brazil to ensure fair calculations of ethanol GHG emissions

In Washington, Brazil’s RenovaBio program establishes national annual emissions reduction targets for transportation fuels that will likely require a significant increase in biofuels consumption. Therefore, the program must accurately reflect the carbon intensity for all ethanol pathways, including imports, the Renewable Fuels Association wrote in comments to Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy submitted Sunday.

RFA’s comments primarily focused on the draft CI calculation tool (known as “RenovaCalc”) that MME will use to determine CI values for various biofuel pathways. Overall, RFA applauded the efforts of MME and others to develop and refine the RenovaCalc tool, but sought clarity on the wide discrepancy between CI scores for imported corn ethanol and Brazil-produced corn ethanol.

Under preliminary RenovaCalc estimates, imported corn ethanol is found to reduce GHG emissions by more than 50% compared to Brazilian gasoline. Meanwhile, Brazil-produced corn ethanol is found to reduce GHG emissions by 70%.

With certain further refinements, RFA said it believes the calculator can provide both regulators and regulated entities with reliable estimates of the CI associated with various fuel pathways.