03-14-2007, 03:20 PM
Hotzcatz, ethanol from sugar cane is a far more efficient process than ethanol from corn, which is the primary source being used on the US mainland. Big agribusiness corn producers and processors managed to lobby through some subsidy legislation in the past Congress that has enabled them to use methods that are not the most efficient and still be more or less guaranteed a profit. (Imagine that, welfare for agribusiness.)
Brazil, not being as wealthy as the USA, cannot afford to spend more energy making ethanol than the resulting output, which has reduced their gasoline consumption by 40% or more. Also, the very most efficient corn conversion processes do produce slightly more energy than they consume.
My farmer cousin in Texas told me about a co-op planning to fuel their tractors and combines with biodiesel to produce corn for ethanol and more biodiesel. This "looping" of the energy production process has great promise, but the project is so new that there are no hard figures on how it will net out. I will be visiting that area in June and hope to get more information on what they are doing. Somebody producing sugar cane should look into removing the petroleum component from their process. That might produce some amazing results.
If using sugar instead of corn drives up the price of sugar, it would help in two ways. First, people would eat less of the unhealthy stuff. And second, most sugar production in now in poorer countries, so a price hike would improve their economies. (Sorry all you Dublin Doctor Pepper fans.)
We have to try something, don't we?
Cheers,
Jerry
Edited by - JerryCarr on 03/14/2007 19:23:56
Brazil, not being as wealthy as the USA, cannot afford to spend more energy making ethanol than the resulting output, which has reduced their gasoline consumption by 40% or more. Also, the very most efficient corn conversion processes do produce slightly more energy than they consume.
My farmer cousin in Texas told me about a co-op planning to fuel their tractors and combines with biodiesel to produce corn for ethanol and more biodiesel. This "looping" of the energy production process has great promise, but the project is so new that there are no hard figures on how it will net out. I will be visiting that area in June and hope to get more information on what they are doing. Somebody producing sugar cane should look into removing the petroleum component from their process. That might produce some amazing results.
If using sugar instead of corn drives up the price of sugar, it would help in two ways. First, people would eat less of the unhealthy stuff. And second, most sugar production in now in poorer countries, so a price hike would improve their economies. (Sorry all you Dublin Doctor Pepper fans.)
We have to try something, don't we?
Cheers,
Jerry
Edited by - JerryCarr on 03/14/2007 19:23:56