Is sugarcane ethanol better than from corn?
 

Today my global energy professor said that, stating that corn ethanol was not sustainable, while sugarcane is extremely efficient. I think that it was more of a side note, he did not explain further.

Can please one of you shed some insight? :)

Sugarcane is a NATURALLY growing plant in most tropical/sub-tropical regions (ie: Brazil, Hawaii, etc.); corn is NOT.

Sugarcane is NOT a viable source of ethanol in the USA due to import taxes.

Corn based ethanol made in the USA uses just as much, if not MORE resources to make than is gained by the production.

i read a book a last year called "alcohol can be a gas" the auther claims most corn in the US goes to feed animals for meat.
cows are really bad at digesting sugers, so corn made into ethanol removes the sugars, leaving cooked protiens and fiber. he claims the left over distillers grains are a better food for cattle, than the raw grain with all of the starch still in place,
the same bushel of grain cooked for alcohol with the starch removed will grow healthier cattle, bigger, faster.


it was a good read and he lists alot of crops for ethanol production, with potential gallons per acre, as well as considerations for things like climate, drought resistance, soil quality etc.

his take away was that corn is not a great source for ethanol because it requires really prime farm land, lots of fertalizer, and irigation,

but if you are growing corn anyway its better to make ethanol with it first, then feed it to animals not ment to eat a high grain diet

i believe this is the guy.
Permaculture & Alcohol Can Be A Gas

FWIW info: the name "C & H" Sugar stood for California & Hawaii, because Hawaii grew the SUGAR CANE (later switching to sugar BEETS) which were shipped to California where they were processed into raw SUGAR.

So-o-o-o, maybe we (Hawaii?) should consider revisiting it's ROOTS and think about becoming an AUTOMOTIVE FUEL producer...again???

I would think that an acre of sugarcane would yield more ethanol than an acre of corn, mostly due to the increased solar energy from regions capable of growing sugarcane.

Russians make vodka from potatoes, so wouldn't this be the cheapest way to make ethanol in the States?

You can extract usable sugar from all these crops and make booze from any and all of them. But the United States Government's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has a powerful, controlling force over all those things: Revenooers. Men with badges and guns will come and prosecute you. Their government mob includes dictating the production and use of alcohol for use as a gasoline additive, instead of it being made into booze or utilizing the corn as animal feed to fatten livestock for food production. This supposedly lowers the cost of gasoline, but it raises the cost of food produced, domestically. If you control the supply and production of any commodity, you influence and ultimately control the market.

But you can now profit from selling pot - it is permitted if you live in Colorado - and the government will turn a blind eye to that.

Of course, there is no politics involved in any of this, is there? :rolleyes:

Is is merely a coincidence that both politic$ and profit begin with "P" -- I think not (wink,wink)!

C & H ... pure can sugar ... from Hawaii ... growing in the sun...
Well that's all I remember while watch Gilligan's Island after school during comerical break's .lol