Post 15: Ethanol
Today we got up really early to travel to the countryside. We took a 3 hour bus ride out of Sao Paulo to a sugarcane plantation and ethanol plant.
We were given a tour of the plant. First, the sugar cane arrives on trucks and is processed into a syrup. Next, it can be either turned into ethanol or Cachaca (Brazilian Rum), or it can be turned into regular cooking sugar. They make three types of sugar: Brown, White, and Yellow, and we actually got to try some of the pure sugar that came right out of the processor. It was really cool just learning about the sugar itself, but learning about how they convert the syrup was my favorite part. It was interesting as we walked from the sugarcane section over to where the ethanol is produced and how the smells changed as we walked over there. You could tell where the alcohol was being produced. It was also interesting to learn that there is only a very very small difference between ethanol and Cachaca, the rum I tried on the very first night out on this trip. It's so amazing that bit only are we experiencing the culture here, but I actually got to see the science behind how one of their most famous drinks is made. And the whole time we also got to wear these incredibly dorky hard hats!
From here, we went to a small town for lunch. We ate at a restaurant with views of a river with a bunch of cool scenery and wildlife. We saw a bunch of cool birds on the banks of the river that we had never seen before. The food was amazing. It was served family-style, so the waiter just brought over large plates of food to share. We had this really good fish from the Amazon with rice and beans and it was incredible.
After this we went to a research facility called Embrapa where they study the carbon content of certain biofuels and biomasses, and from here we headed home to work on our group energy projects. It was a great day because we had a lot of time to relax on the bus. I spent a lot of the time just looking out the window and the scenery. It was so cool to see the countryside, and it makes me excited for Foz de Iguazu especially. And I also got to watch both the sunrise and sunset, which were beautiful.
We were given a tour of the plant. First, the sugar cane arrives on trucks and is processed into a syrup. Next, it can be either turned into ethanol or Cachaca (Brazilian Rum), or it can be turned into regular cooking sugar. They make three types of sugar: Brown, White, and Yellow, and we actually got to try some of the pure sugar that came right out of the processor. It was really cool just learning about the sugar itself, but learning about how they convert the syrup was my favorite part. It was interesting as we walked from the sugarcane section over to where the ethanol is produced and how the smells changed as we walked over there. You could tell where the alcohol was being produced. It was also interesting to learn that there is only a very very small difference between ethanol and Cachaca, the rum I tried on the very first night out on this trip. It's so amazing that bit only are we experiencing the culture here, but I actually got to see the science behind how one of their most famous drinks is made. And the whole time we also got to wear these incredibly dorky hard hats!
From here, we went to a small town for lunch. We ate at a restaurant with views of a river with a bunch of cool scenery and wildlife. We saw a bunch of cool birds on the banks of the river that we had never seen before. The food was amazing. It was served family-style, so the waiter just brought over large plates of food to share. We had this really good fish from the Amazon with rice and beans and it was incredible.
After this we went to a research facility called Embrapa where they study the carbon content of certain biofuels and biomasses, and from here we headed home to work on our group energy projects. It was a great day because we had a lot of time to relax on the bus. I spent a lot of the time just looking out the window and the scenery. It was so cool to see the countryside, and it makes me excited for Foz de Iguazu especially. And I also got to watch both the sunrise and sunset, which were beautiful.
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