Ethablog, by Henrique Oliveira.
BioPact reports that Nature magazine now joins the raft of international media who have decided to take a second look at Brazil’s ethanol program to check out why they don’t use corn.
As it turns out, Brazilians don’t use corn because they use sugarcane instead. They would certainly use corn for fuel production (Brazil can plant almost any crop it wants, thanks to very favorable geological and climate conditions), if corn had a higher return on energy invested than does sugarcane. But, alas, sugarcane is vastly more efficient than corn.
It didn’t take the PhDs at Nature long to discover what one humble Michigan MBA has been advocating all along on this blog. Some excerpts:
“(Sugarcane yields) an eight-fold return (on energy invested). This is a lot better than ethanol-makers in the United States manage.”
“Cane is a far more prolific plant than corn, from which the United States makes almost all its ethanol.”
“Sugarcane ethanol is also currently the cheapest ethanol to produce in the world. A liter costs about 25 cents to make. The commodity price for anhydrous ethanol (the kind mixed into gasohol) is about 27 cents.”
"(...) There are environmental worries that go along with the ethanol industry too: as well as fertilizer and fuel use, there are also pesticides and pollutants such as liquid waste and smoke from burning fields to take into account. This result, though, is disputed — and the industry seems to be getting greener as it goes hunting for efficiency gains.”
“Field burning, which by scorching the cane makes it easier to harvest with machetes, is decreasing both as a result of legislation and the increased use of mechanized harvesters.”
“Perhaps the biggest environmental worry is that expanding ethanol production will lay waste to natural forests in its path, reducing biodiversity and releasing stored up carbon.”
Read BioPact’s review of the article here.
BioPact reports that Nature magazine now joins the raft of international media who have decided to take a second look at Brazil’s ethanol program to check out why they don’t use corn.
As it turns out, Brazilians don’t use corn because they use sugarcane instead. They would certainly use corn for fuel production (Brazil can plant almost any crop it wants, thanks to very favorable geological and climate conditions), if corn had a higher return on energy invested than does sugarcane. But, alas, sugarcane is vastly more efficient than corn.
It didn’t take the PhDs at Nature long to discover what one humble Michigan MBA has been advocating all along on this blog. Some excerpts:
“(Sugarcane yields) an eight-fold return (on energy invested). This is a lot better than ethanol-makers in the United States manage.”
“Cane is a far more prolific plant than corn, from which the United States makes almost all its ethanol.”
“Sugarcane ethanol is also currently the cheapest ethanol to produce in the world. A liter costs about 25 cents to make. The commodity price for anhydrous ethanol (the kind mixed into gasohol) is about 27 cents.”
"(...) There are environmental worries that go along with the ethanol industry too: as well as fertilizer and fuel use, there are also pesticides and pollutants such as liquid waste and smoke from burning fields to take into account. This result, though, is disputed — and the industry seems to be getting greener as it goes hunting for efficiency gains.”
“Field burning, which by scorching the cane makes it easier to harvest with machetes, is decreasing both as a result of legislation and the increased use of mechanized harvesters.”
“Perhaps the biggest environmental worry is that expanding ethanol production will lay waste to natural forests in its path, reducing biodiversity and releasing stored up carbon.”
Read BioPact’s review of the article here.
