Some 30 odd years ago Brazil made a bold decision. They decided that the best route they could take towards energy independence and a move away from importing oil was to use their vast acreages of sugar beets and sugar canes to distill fuel. As international oil prices continue to soar, that bet has put Brazil’s decades old gamble at the forefront of a “biofuels” movement in which many countries view sugar cane, corn, soybeans, beets, cornstalks and native grasses as cleaner, money-saving substitutes for oil. This is especially true of oil produced in politically unstable countries where just the mention of using oil as an economic weapon can make the price jump by ten dollars a barrel or more.
Ethanol is higher in power-producing octane than most gasoline and can reduce tailpipe emissions of carbon monoxide and harmful particulates. Although Ethanol can be made from a wide variety of plant products, by its very nature of being an alcohol, it tends to get the purest, most efficient results from refining of Sugar from Sugar Cane, and South America happens to enjoy a tremendous crop of the fast growing plant.
In Brazil, all gasoline has to have a minimum of 26% Ethanol, but consumers using a “flex fuel” vehicle that is designed to burn the higher percentage Ethanol blends can run on pure Ethanol, known as E100, or the slightly diluted version called E85 which is indeed 85% pure. Along with more power and much cleaner exhaust, there is another benefit. The purer the blend, the cheaper the price. So, Brazil has now become a leading exporter of the fuel to other countries, such as the US, the European nations, China, and a host of others.
In the US, the Government has made it clear that they’d like to cut down on both global warming, tailpipe particulates and of course the importation of so much oil. With hostile Governments in the Mid East willing to use oil as a weapon, the call went out for a true substitute and Ethanol got the nod. However, in the US, most of the Ethanol produced so far has come from Corn, not Sugar and that’s a problem in several areas. First off it takes much more refining and much more energy to produce Ethanol from a given amount of Corn, versus a similar amount of Sugar cane. Secondly, it simply takes a tremendous amount more Corn to produce a gallon of Ethanol, than would be produced by Sugar. To offset this discrepancy, US producers of Ethanol have been granted a tax subsidy of over 51 cents per gallon, and still tariffs were imposed on Imports to help keep domestic producers profitable.
Most people view the US as a world leader, but when it comes to Ethanol, South America has a huge head start. By most estimates, South American Sugar Cane Ethanol of extremely high purity can be produced for approximately half of what the US refiners can turn out with Corn based distilling. Not only is the cane more rich in energy, the refineries themselves are almost self sufficient. The part of the outer hull of the sugar cane that isn’t processed is burned to create steam, which they run their electrical generators on. All in all, it’s a very efficient use of the land, the crop, and the fuel itself.
With oil now fetching upwards of 100 dollars a barrel, a fuel that can replace some of the demand for oil is a very important economic matter. Entire economies are known to slow, even to the point of recession during an “oil shock” where the price rises substantially, or quickly. South American Sugar Cane Ethanol has now proven itself to be a worthy replacement. The fact is that compared to Corn, even the production of the plant itself is less expensive. This is because sugar cane requires fewer chemicals than any crop except raw pasture to cultivate. Corn on the other hand requires costly fertilizers, to produce hearty harvests.
Alternative fuels are here to stay, and Sugar Cane based Ethanol is one of the best choices we’ll have. Existing cars can be adapted to run even the higher blends, at a very modest price, just by adding a fuel sensor, and corrosion resistant hoses. GM, Ford, Volkswagen and several European manufacturers are more than willing to produce flex type vehicles that will bring showroom new vehicles right to an Ethanol pump. The verdict is in, and Sugar Cane is willing and able to do the job.
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