U.S., Brazil, EU Speed Up Standardizing Ethanol, Official Says

Bloomberg.com
By Carlos Caminada

June 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S., Brazil and the European Union are accelerating efforts to create global standards for ethanol and make the alternative fuel an internationally traded commodity, boosting its use, an American official said.

Government and industry leaders discussing the plan may finish standardizing methods for analyzing ethanol properties such as water and energy content by December, four years ahead of schedule, the U.S. State Department's Gregory Manuel said. Next, the group will begin to set content standards, he said.

``The U.S., Brazil and EU have agreed to fast-track the process,'' Manuel, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's special adviser for alternative energy, said in an interview in Sao Paulo yesterday. ``What we've achieved so far could have taken several years and we did it in several months.''

The standards will let buyers and sellers worldwide trade ethanol like gasoline, oil, copper, sugar and other commodities, boosting the fuel's use, Manuel said. Currently, a buyer in Sweden has to send engineers to mills in Brazil to test the fuel before buying it to sell to drivers of flex-fuel Saabs and Volvos in the Nordic country, he said.

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