Sugar Beet vs Corn Ethanol

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Sugar Beet vs Corn Ethanol

• Dominic Deichert

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Ethanol

• Ford Model T designed to use pure ethanol
• Today, a fuel additive to decrease gaseous
  emissions
• An AKI octane number of 100.5 to 116 - commercial
  gasoline average is 87
• A functional unit of 1.5 gallons ethanol to 1
  gallon gasoline

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Why Sugar Beets?

• Can be grown annually in most regions
• Current production is 1,243,000 acres giving 22.2
  tons/acre beets (27,537,000 tons beets)
• Studies of French sugar beet ethanol suggests 750
  gallons ethanol per acre - 590 gallons per acre
  of sugar cane in Brazil.
• One downside Cost is 2-3 times as much for sugar
  beet ethanol compared to sugar cane

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Direct Comparison
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Direct Comparison
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American Farming

• Sugar Beets 532.8 gallons/acre
• Need 1.51x current production for 1
• Losses due to fertilizer, pesticide, and machine
  use 18.2
• Corn 369.75 gallons/acre
• Need 3.6 current production for 1
• Losses due to fertilizer, pesticide, and machine
  use 32.2

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Sugar Beet Process
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Corn Dry-Mill Process
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Net Energy

• Processing
• Sugar Beet Losses 32.9
• Corn Losses 58.1
• Overall Losses
• Sugar Beet 51.1
• Corn 90.4

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Summary

• Ethanol is a tested immediate solution to cut
  emissions
• Sugar beets have highest productivity of ethanol
  per acre and are suited for the U.S.
• Both processes are the same with an additional
  step to break up starch into sugar
• Sugar beets are better than corn from an energy
  standpoint

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Questions?