How come Americans do not power their cars from sugar like Brazil does?

Question

I've read somewhere that it is seven times powerful and effiecient than corn

Answer 1

Hmm...I would love to read this article or website. How do they get away from the fact that heated sugar turns into a gooey sludge or crystallizes into a hard substance?

Can you post where you read this and how the technology works?

Answer 2

Brazil has a fairly large fuel ethanol infastructure. This includes the use of pure ethanol in specially designed cars, flex fuel vehicles much like the E85 vehicles available in the U.S., and the addition of 10% ethanol in all gasoline sold. They have been doing this for over 30 years.

Initially this was a government program aimed at reducing dependence on foreign oil. At the time it was created (the 70s), Brazil had very few developed domestic oil reserves and imported over 90% of all oil used. This was also the time of one of the periodic oil crunches (much as we are going through now). The development of the ethanol infastructure was done in parallel with a massive government sponsered program to find and develop domestic oil reserves. This too was very successful, and Brazil is not a major oil producer and with its most recent discoveries may become a major oil exporter.

The primary crop grown for the production of ethanol is sugar cane, but other crops are used as well. Sugar cane or other sugar bearing crops (such as sugar beets) are indeed more efficient as ethanol feed stocks because the sugars can be fermented directly without pretreatment. Starch (e.g. corn) or cellulosic (e.g. wood waste) feed stocks must first be treated to convert the starch or cellulose into sugars before ethanol can be produced.

Regardless of the crop used, ethanol is a more costly fuel on a constant BTU (or kcal) basis than petroleum.

Answer 3

The short and sweet answer is we can't grow enough sugarcane due to our climate. But read below for a more detailed explanation as to the limitations of corn ethanol.

1) The energy ratio of corn ethanol is (at the most favorable analysis) 1:1.3. This means that for every gallon of ethanol produced, it takes .75 gallons of some hydrocarbon fuel to produce. This is also where the cost of ethanol becomes a factor; the energy ratio is not the cost by itself - you need pay someone to burn the fuel and produce the extra 0.3 gallons of energy you will produce. This amounts to a salary, overhead, insurance, taxes etc. If it made as much economic sense as it's proponents state, then some company would already be doing it without the subsidies.

2) Available land - of all land available for cultivation in America, just over one-third would be required to produce enough to replace ethanol. However, realistically speaking, only half of available land is used for farming (the rest is CRP). This means that two-thirds of available land would be required for ethanol production. What this would do to the cost of food and other goods would be a disaster for lower income familes and people (see bbc source).

3) Energy density of ethanol - The energy density of ethanol is approximately 30% less than gasoline (This again factors into cost). By mass, a 10% ethanol/gasoline mix has approximately 7% less energy than straight gas. By volume (gallon) a 10% ethanol/gasoline mix has 19% energy less than one gallon of straight gass (think of that when you are at the pump). These energy density reductions kill your mpg. Most cars will have higher operating costs due to the lower efficiencies with ethanol (more $ / mile). This is also not taking into account the $0.50 subsidy on every gallon of ethanol on top of the regular tax.

Answer 4

Because we grow corn in the US. However, it is pretty stupid to use it to make ethanol as we have been using it to feed the world as mentioned above. Switchgrass is much more efficient and does not affect the food supply.
However, removing some corn from the food supply may be a benefit due to all the wierd stuff they make from it and put into almost every processed food we eat. I am firmly convinced that this planet is getting more bizarre by the minute.

Answer 5

They don't power the cars with sugar. They use sugar cane to create ethanol. And that's what they use to power their cars.

Yes sugar cane has much higher ethanol yields than corn, but sugar cane is what they grow, and corn is what we grow. We have different growing seasons and climates and as a result we have different crops.

And corn based E85 is way too inefficient to give us a good supply. However they are now working on cellulosic ethanol which is extremely efficient. (Has an energy ratio of 12:1, 12 gallons of fuel for every 1 gallon put in)

Answer 6

It is ludicrous that we are even trying to use corn (or any ethanol source) for fuel. It takes 450 barrels of corn to make a tank of gas. That's enough to feed a family of four for over a year. If each of them rode a bike that would make eating the corn thousands of times more efficient as a transportation fuel than using it to make ethanol. I'm not saying we need to be riding bikes everywhere, I'm just trying to show that corn based ethanol is a waste of time and money. The only people who benefit are corn producers. We shouldn't be inventing and supporting wasteful industries just to pander to corn producing primary voters. If they can't make a profit off of corn otherwise then too bad. I'm sorry Iowa, I thought this was America.

Answer 7

Careful!

Ethanol from sugar is substituted for some of the gas in Brazil. With the price of sugar low and a large excess of sugar cane it makes sense to convert sugar to ethanol to substitute for some gas.
BUT....taking corn away from food stores to make ethanol for gas sustitution has a very very big impact on food prices, especially in the developing countries.
In Japan they have just announced an initiative to study using rice straw, a waste product that is usually burned in the fields, to make ethanol-a great idea! Reduces CO2 output from burning rice stubbles and lessens demand for oil!

Answer 8

Brazil does not power anything with sugar. They use the sugar to make alcohol. We use corn to make alcohol because our climate is more suited to growing corn than it is cane. Some one (no doubt) will tell you the great and wondrous soon to be claims of celloulosic alcohol. Thing is it does not actually exist. No one knows how to do that yet (economically.) Living in the USA as I do, the one thing we truly NEED to lower our energy consumption is Mass Transit. It needs to be as easy / economical to catch the bus or the train as it is to jump in the car. We NEED Mass Transit.

Answer 9

Because GW's best friends are oil men. It takes lots of oil and gas to produce corn. Fertilizer and fuel for machinery. And since ethanol from corn takes as much energy to produce as it delivers, the oil men have no problem with it.

Many more people in the world will now face starvation as corn is diverted from the food supply to make ethanol. And pollution from fertilizer production and the runoff thereof will increase.

Ethanol from corn is a global disaster in the making!

Net gain for a few, net loss for everyone else. Anything else new?

Answer 10

Yes, sugar cane produces a lot of ethanol, and you only need to compress it in a grinder and put all that liquid to fermentation. Of course, there is more technology to produce a good ethanol to your car. The secret is not only in sugar cane, it's also the machinery of your vehicle. I don't know why Americans still do it from corn. We use bio-fuels in our cars since 1976 (and also sugar-cane in aircraft).

Sugar cane can also substitute oil to make ecological plastic, and to generate electricity (we call it biomass mill).

Answer 11

I am sure they turn sugar in to ethenol for mixing with gasoline. Oddly, Zimbabwe has been doing this for at least 30 years. It works well but it is not a good solution for global warming for the simple reason that sugar or alcohal also contain carbon that is released by the car. Basically, carbon fixing cycle has been disrupted badly. We need a solution that is non-carbon based. Fuel cell certainly a possibility, solar power is another.