Stratos Renewables Corp. is a development stage company preparing to launch a sugarcane-based ethanol project in Peru. The company’s near-term goal is to emerge as the leader in low-cost, high-yield sugarcane production. The company chose Peru for its climatic and geological environments, and sugarcane over other feedstocks for several significant reasons.
Sugarcane-based ethanol is a renewable fuel source that reduces carbon emissions and is less expensive to produce than its counterpart, corn. According to Stratos, sugarcane-based ethanol produces 80 percent less harmful emissions than gasoline.
But few countries have caught onto the numbers quite as fast as Brazil. Brazil is one of the first countries to heavily lean on sugarcane as a primary fuel source. Stratos believes that its Peruvian location will allow it to cultivate and harvest more than twice the amount of sugarcane per hectare (2.5 acres) than equal operations in Brazil.
Sugarcane contains more starch than any other plant stock. When compared to corn, sugarcane offers nearly three times the ethanol yields. It also generates a higher energy balance than other ethanol sources.
The debate rolls on, amongst renewable fuel source experts, as to which feedstock can offer the most attractive long and short-term benefits, economically and environmentally. Stratos firmly stands behind sugarcane-based ethanol as the way to go, and plans to complete its expansion and relocation efforts in the third quarter of 2009.
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