The Bio-fuel Dilemma

Personally I would flavor electric vehicles over alternative fuels and I'm not enthusiastic about ethanol and other bio-fuels. My reason is simple "It is not a good image for motor fuel to be competing with human food."

In Brazil, where there is a convincing case - economically and environmentally - for making ethanol from sugarcane, they have become very sensitive to accusations that bio-fuel means a shortage of or an increase in the price of food.

A few weeks ago I visited Brazil's biggest ethanol producer, the sugarcane plantation and processing plant at Sao Martinho, 320 kilometers north of Sao Paulo. I was told that it takes 1 percent of the country's arable land to grow the plants that fuel 50 percent of Brazil's cars, the majority of which are now flex-fuel. The ethanol equivalent of a barrel of oil is about US$ 45, this is significant lower then a barrel of oil.

It delivers 9 times the energy expended in its production and the Brazilians claim that whole life cycle reduces CO2 by 90 percent compared with gasoline.

Of all European countries, Sweden has adopted E85 most enthusiastically. It is using imported ethanol now to be ready for the second generation bio-fuel that can be made locally. Brazil also claims to be leading the way here. Sao Martinho uses the bagasse and straw to generate electricity and ultimately though hydrolysis to make more ethanol.

In Thailand we have Biodiesel which is a diesel alternative fuel derived from animal fats and other biological sources like palm, coconut, soybean, sunflower, rape seed, physic nut, or waste vegetable oils. So be careful if you vegetarian, Biodiesel can contain animal products. For the production of ethanol Thai producers use several types of raw materials used in ethanol production such as sugarcane, molasses, cassava, sweet potato, rice, corn, wheat, sweet sorghum, etc. With rice, corn and cassava being the most efficient crops with the ability to give the highest weight to liters ethanol.