Comments on: Ethanol Power and sugar subsidies http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/10/11/ethanol-power-and-sugar-subsidies/ Motorcycle News for Positive People Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:40:02 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Gary Dikkers http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/10/11/ethanol-power-and-sugar-subsidies/comment-page-1/#comment-4477 Gary Dikkers Sun, 16 Oct 2005 20:54:07 +0000 /?p=619#comment-4477 < < They grow a lot of sugar cane in Brazil and the cost of ethanol is less per mile driven than gasoline even though ethanol yields less miles per gallon. Whether the cost differential is due to tax differences isn’t clear. >> There are two simple to understand reasons why Brazil has been succesful with using ethanol as motor fuel: 1. The process for converting the sugars in sugarcane to ethanol is more efficient (and less energy intensive) than the process for converting the starches in corn to ethanol. 2. Much of Brazil's sugarcane crop is still harvested using manual labor. They don't burn all the fossil fuels our corn farmers consume growing, harvesting, and transporting corn. If the U.S. transitions to fuel ethanol, Brazil and the Amazon basin are likely to become the OPEC and Saudi Arabia of ethanol. < < They grow a lot of sugar cane in Brazil and the cost of ethanol is less per mile driven than gasoline even though ethanol yields less miles per gallon. Whether the cost differential is due to tax differences isn’t clear. >>

There are two simple to understand reasons why Brazil has been succesful with using ethanol as motor fuel:

1. The process for converting the sugars in sugarcane to ethanol is more efficient (and less energy intensive) than the process for converting the starches in corn to ethanol.

2. Much of Brazil’s sugarcane crop is still harvested using manual labor. They don’t burn all the fossil fuels our corn farmers consume growing, harvesting, and transporting corn.

If the U.S. transitions to fuel ethanol, Brazil and the Amazon basin are likely to become the OPEC and Saudi Arabia of ethanol.

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