Anyone heard about brazil using sugar cane to make ethanol? Why cant we do that here?

Question

Anyone heard about brazil using sugar cane to make ethanol? Why cant we do that here?

Answer 1

It is because the Sugar industry doesn't have the lobbing power of the Corn industry.  BTW, (I hope the others who answer you read this), I live in Florida.  Florida is one of the largest sugar cane growing regions in the world!  The possiblity of making sugar based ethonol here was explored, but the start-up cost ititially are a little higher than that of corn.  Nevertheless, it would be recovered in a couple of years.

Answer 2

Using sugar to make ethanol might raise the  price of sugar used in so much of our food. Do we want to do without our sugar fix just to drive cars?

Yes, sugar cane makes more ethanol per hectare of land than does corn, and at a lower cost. THe beauty of using ONLY cane for ethanol is that it prevents us from using a lot of land that is needed to feed people. How? well there is just a very small amount of cane growing land in the USA.

Of course the USA could import sugar from say Cuba, Or anywhere in the tropics. Let the peoples of those areas starve so that we can drive.

USA policy for energy security is to defer extracting from its own petroleum reserves and use up the last reserves from all over the world before we exploit our own. But there is no reason why that should be restricted to fossil fuels. Buy up ethanol from all over the world too, to further extend our supply.

After all, money is just paper. Fuel is real value.

Answer 3

That's how rum has been made for centuries.  It's nothing new; it's just now being applied to fuels like gasohol and E85.

Answer 4

Sugar beets and rotten potatoes make more sugar than cane  mass wise.  But cane is good and sorghum.

Answer 5

Brazil can do it because they are more like a communist country, so they can have the government say do it and they have to.

Two points, BTW.  There is algae that is 50% oil.  We could be farming that in tanks.  Also, VW has had cars for decades that get over 40 MPG.

Answer 6

Yes. Brazil has the climate for producing sugar cane. Hence they can use it to distill ethanol. It is efficient because the process for making ethanol involves distilling sugars.

In climates that can't grow substantial amounts of sugar plants, we must use other agricultural/renewable substances & convert the starches into sugars before distilling ethanol.

The US has a better climate for corn & that is why we must use what is readily available to us.

The UK has a better climate for wheat or barley.

In the US the  production of corn-to-ethanol also produces some valuable by-products. (ie;distillers garins, corn oil)

The corn used for ethanol production is not fit for human consumption. It is called "field corn"

Only the starches from the 'field corn' are are used for ethanol.

The remaining 'grain' is used as a high protein feed for livestock. and the corn oil is also removed by the ethanol production process.

So while the actual production of fuel_from_sugarcane is more efficient...the by-products that are created by fuel_from_corn make it also an efficient & value-added source

Answer 7

thats true, In Costa Rica also we make ethanol from sugar cane.

And we use another alternatives to running motors.

www.edgararaya.ws

http://groups.msn.com/grupoaguilasgdi/

Answer 8

Because using corn and burning our food makes it easier to keep prices artificially high, while enslaving the working class.

Answer 9

Sugar cane grows in the tropics not in Iowa.

Answer 10

if we used these fuels how the oil refineries afford their homes in Aspen, million dollar bonuses and keep inching the middle class further and further down?

it is sort of selfish for the millions and millions of people who suffer from the high cost of gasoline that is killing our economy not think of the handful making record breaking profits.

Answer 11

we dont do that here because growing sugar cane this far north isnt feasible. instead we grow corn and wheat and sugar beets and turn that into ethanol rather than selling ti as food. this has helped to create a global food shortage sending staples prices such as rice and corn through the roof over the past year.

also, are you sure we WANT the brazilians to cut down the second largest forest in the world so we can drive more cars? im not sure we should destroy the amazon so we can drive big SUVs... but maybe thats just me.

Answer 12

I can't stay quiet any longer about the politics of this land.  I have been contacting my senators and congressman about a couple of issues, and they were very glad to hear from me.  Here are the 2 issues:



1.  The senate is voting soon on the Supplemental Spending Bill for the Iraq War, and Diane Feinstein put in an amendment to grant amnesty to 1 million ILLEGAL immigrants because the produce is not getting picked in time.  Our economy is in so much trouble, and there are lots of LEGAL citizens that need the money and would be willing to work in agriculture.  There are plenty of youth that need good, hard-working jobs to earn them the money they need for college, cars, etc.  Feinstein's amendment is very inappropriate.  Once you start the amnesty policy, there will be no end.  I just saw a presentation on how excessive immigration will undo our country in many ways...too far to mention.



2.  Our country has lots of oil reserves in many states and out in the surrounding oceans.  We have the technology to drill for it in a responsible way to conserve the environment.  The Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah have oil shale that can be successfully developed for oil, and the Energy Policy of 2005 directed the BLM to lease these lands to those willing to develop the shale oil.  Now a moratorium was imposed as part of the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2008 to NOT allow the BLM to lease land for shale oil development.



It is my opinion that we should be calling our representatives and letting them know we will not vote for them if they don't allow us to glean our own oil resources in our own land and help our own people and our economy.  To go begging to Saudi Arabia for more oil is humiliating and unnecessary.  This is the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of the world to take our money by the billions and give it to countries that are not friendly to us and then prohibit our own people from providing for themselves.



I have sent this out to many in different states.  If we each do our part, and spread the word, something can be done about this situation.  We the people are still in charge if we will take the responsibility.  I had a very good experience calling my representatives, both Republican and Democrat.  Their phone numbers were in the phone directory.  



Thanks for reading, and I hope you will take action.