corn, sugar, ethanol
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/27/061127ta_talk_surowiecki
...In recent years, as politicians have tried to deal with high gas prices, concerns about global warming, and America’s dependence on OPEC, a new savior has been found: ethanol.... Unfortunately, the ethanol produced in the U.S. comes from a less-than-ideal source: corn. Corn ethanol’s “net energy balance”-the amount of energy it yields in proportion to how much energy goes into its production-is significantly lower than that of other alternatives, and modern corn farming isn’t easy on the land. By contrast, ethanol distilled from sugarcane is much cheaper to produce and generates far more energy per unit of input-eight times more, by most estimates-than corn does. In the nineteen-seventies, Brazil embarked on a program to substitute sugar ethanol for oil. Today, every gallon of gas in Brazil is blended with at least twenty per cent of ethanol, and many cars run on ethanol alone, at half the price of gasoline.
What’s stopping the U.S. from doing the same? In a word, politics. The favors granted to the sugar industry keep the price of domestic sugar so high that it’s not cost-effective to use it for ethanol.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/latinamerica/bush-visit.html
... U.S. ethanol is corn-based whereas Brazil uses its huge sugar cane resources to produce the biofuel. The end product has the same name, but they're fundamentally different.
And therein lies a problem.
In 2006, Brazil exported 3.2 billion litres of ethanol, 2 billion of which went to the U.S. But that trade relationship is not an entirely happy one. The U.S. has a tariff on Brazilian ethanol, to the tune of 54 cents per gallon.
Knowing that the U.S. wants and needs alternative fuels, this may sound puzzling. But then you would have to take into account the massive U.S. corn lobby....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060824.WHETHANOL24/TPStory/Environment
... The truth is, ethanol is not as environmentally friendly as its most ardent supporters say and vehicle performance is compromised, too. True, compared with gasoline, ethanol produces 12-per-cent less so-called greenhouse gasses linked to global warming, notes a recent study from the University of Minnesota.
But the researchers also said it has environmental drawbacks, including "markedly greater" releases of nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticides into waterways as runoff from cornfields. Ethanol, especially at higher concentrations in gasoline, also produces more smog-causing pollutants than gasoline per unit of energy burned, the researchers said....
...In recent years, as politicians have tried to deal with high gas prices, concerns about global warming, and America’s dependence on OPEC, a new savior has been found: ethanol.... Unfortunately, the ethanol produced in the U.S. comes from a less-than-ideal source: corn. Corn ethanol’s “net energy balance”-the amount of energy it yields in proportion to how much energy goes into its production-is significantly lower than that of other alternatives, and modern corn farming isn’t easy on the land. By contrast, ethanol distilled from sugarcane is much cheaper to produce and generates far more energy per unit of input-eight times more, by most estimates-than corn does. In the nineteen-seventies, Brazil embarked on a program to substitute sugar ethanol for oil. Today, every gallon of gas in Brazil is blended with at least twenty per cent of ethanol, and many cars run on ethanol alone, at half the price of gasoline.
What’s stopping the U.S. from doing the same? In a word, politics. The favors granted to the sugar industry keep the price of domestic sugar so high that it’s not cost-effective to use it for ethanol.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/latinamerica/bush-visit.html
... U.S. ethanol is corn-based whereas Brazil uses its huge sugar cane resources to produce the biofuel. The end product has the same name, but they're fundamentally different.
And therein lies a problem.
In 2006, Brazil exported 3.2 billion litres of ethanol, 2 billion of which went to the U.S. But that trade relationship is not an entirely happy one. The U.S. has a tariff on Brazilian ethanol, to the tune of 54 cents per gallon.
Knowing that the U.S. wants and needs alternative fuels, this may sound puzzling. But then you would have to take into account the massive U.S. corn lobby....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060824.WHETHANOL24/TPStory/Environment
... The truth is, ethanol is not as environmentally friendly as its most ardent supporters say and vehicle performance is compromised, too. True, compared with gasoline, ethanol produces 12-per-cent less so-called greenhouse gasses linked to global warming, notes a recent study from the University of Minnesota.
But the researchers also said it has environmental drawbacks, including "markedly greater" releases of nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticides into waterways as runoff from cornfields. Ethanol, especially at higher concentrations in gasoline, also produces more smog-causing pollutants than gasoline per unit of energy burned, the researchers said....