Brazil’s sugarcane association Unica on Monday lauded a new government initiative that could pave the way for Brazil to start calling ethanol “ethanol” and not “alcohol” as the product is known. The government has opened a 30-day public consultation period on the issue with a hearing scheduled for early March, the association said. Unica said the change is purely semantics due to the need to create a standard between Brazil and the rest of the world. The association is a strong advocate for the development of ethanol into a global commodity. “Ethyl alcohol and ethanol are synonyms,” Unica said, adding that the change, if approved, would be pushed through gradually to avoid confusion among Brazilian consumers. The words “alcohol” and “ethanol” (in their Portuguese equivalents "alcool" and "etanol") will be displayed side-by-side for a few months, Unica said. Brazilian fuel stations have no preference for one word or another, according to one large fuel distributor in Rio de Janeiro. However, the source said fuel retailers were concerned about the eventual cost involved in renaming thousands of pumps around the country.（ICIS）