Brazil's Ethanol?

Question

I know that Brazil is using ethanol composed of sugarcane. I was wondering what the cost of a gallon of this fuel is. I also know that sugarcane is more efficient than corn. What is the efficiency of their ethanol in relation to gasoline.

Answer 1

From the alcohol fuel handbook by Lynn Ellen Dixon:

Sugar cane one ton (2000 ib)   produces 15.18 gallons

Sugar beets one ton (2000 ib) produces 22.00 gallons

Corn             one bushel (56 ib) produces 2.34 gallons

Pure Sugar one ton (2000 ib)   produces 138.4 gallons

Corn sugar  one ton (2000 ib)   produces 139.4 gallons

Gallons per 100 ibs field corn:              5.27

Gallons per 100 ibs whiterice:              5.86

Gallons per 100 ibs wheart SRW:        5.26

Gallons per 100 ibs dandilion greens: 0.67

Gallons per 100 ibs split peas              4.57

This is still misleading. Nor reference to the cost of growing one bushel of corn or a ton of sugar cane in terms of energy or land.

No reference to how much sugar cane is needed to produce a ton of pure sugar or how much corn is needed to make a ton of corn sugar.

So there are a lot of variables to consider. I can't make enough sense of the economics for justifying the making of ethanol in my backyard.

Hands down cheapest energy source in terms of cost of production per btu is gasoline derived friom saudi crude.

Answer 2

The other posters are correct, however there is an even better 'crop' that can be turned into ethanol. It's switchgrass, grown in marginal lands that the USDA currently pays farmers not to grow crops on. It's much better than corn which returns at most 25% more energy than you need to produce ethanol from it, switchgrass returns 540% as much energy, much better than sugarcane. It's permanent root system doesn't require replanting each season and the roots keep most of the CO2 released in producing and using the ethanol trapped underground. It may require less water than corn and have fewer pest problems as well, that's unclear but it's being studied. Studies are being funded by the USDA and DOE, read about it at the link below and contact your congressman if you'd like to get the oil companies to stop controlling our government and pocketbooks. And let them know that corn ethanol is a disaster and a total failure for everyone but the farmers that get paid for those programs.

Answer 3

All kinds of ethanol are exactly the same, ethanol is ethanol, but of course the production methods differ. Ethanol from sugarcane costs about 20$ per barrel.

A teacher once told me that when Brazil started ethanol production in the 70-80's a barrel costed 100$ while a barrel of oil costed 20$. Everyone laughed because that was "inneficient" but who is laughing now?

Answer 4

Sugar cane-based ethanol requires around 3-5 times less land than corn-based ethanol, and also less energy to produce.  There's a nice chart here:

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/are-al...