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Southern Crop For The Future?
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<blockquote data-quote="cowtrek" data-source="post: 421028" data-attributes="member: 2847"><p>I think that the farm programs should be tweaked to encourage farmers to plant more energy crops, and the tax breaks and other incentives leaned to support the related infrastructure. I watched a program about sugar in Brazil and they were showing a plant where the liquid sugar was coming out of the unit; they can switch a valve one way and the sugar goes into a dryer and granulator, switch it the other way and it goes straight into the ethanol fermenter. Guess which way it goes most of the time. The International Sugar Compact has artificially held up the price of sugar for a hundred years; without it the price of sugar would have utterly collapsed. Sugar is the most efficient feedstock for ethanol production and using corn (or sorghum and other grains) strictly speaking is a waste. </p><p></p><p>I live near Sugarland, TX. Know why it is called that? Before WW 2 the main things grown within 30 miles of the place was rice and sugarcane. Hasn't been any sugarcane grown around here in probably 60 years. Rice is getting thin too. The sugar that Imperial Sugar produces comes in by rail for refining from Louisiana and Florida now. Simple fact is that sugarcane could be grown on a vast area across the Deep South and SE TX and could be used as a direct feedstock for ethanol production. The cotton industry is dying a slow painful death and sugarcane should be seriously looked at as an alternative and studies done by extension/universities and such. Every year farmers go under and more and more land is turning into subdivisions, and a lot of that land would be suitable for growing sugarcane even if it isn't much good for corn and grains. </p><p></p><p>That said, I recently read something that said for every FIVE QUARTS of ethanol it takes FOUR QUARTS of petroleum to produce it, including all the fuel used to plant, grow, harvest, dry, and transport the crop, heat to distill the alcohol, oil used by petrochemical plants to produce the pesticides necessary to grow the crop, and the natural gas used to make the ammonia fertilizer. That means that to replace our entire current gasoline supply with ethanol would require us to use four times the amount of oil we use currently just to produce and transport it. Clearly that isn't even possible. Ethanol isn't the magic bullet to solve all the energy problems, but I think it can be an important part of it. A sensible ethanol program would help farmers transition to more sustainable farm economy and probably help get the WTO off our backs at the same time, and probably help save a lot of farmland that would sprout subdivisions otherwise by making it profitable to farm. More emphasis on soybeans in the South to make biodiesel would help too. Switchgrass or other such crops for biomass power plants could be a good addition if they're economically viable. Increased fuel economy standards should be a no brainer but seems to be a four letter word to the powers that be. </p><p></p><p>It's got to be a combined effort on many broad fronts if it is to make even a good dent in the energy needs of this country. OL JR <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cowtrek, post: 421028, member: 2847"] I think that the farm programs should be tweaked to encourage farmers to plant more energy crops, and the tax breaks and other incentives leaned to support the related infrastructure. I watched a program about sugar in Brazil and they were showing a plant where the liquid sugar was coming out of the unit; they can switch a valve one way and the sugar goes into a dryer and granulator, switch it the other way and it goes straight into the ethanol fermenter. Guess which way it goes most of the time. The International Sugar Compact has artificially held up the price of sugar for a hundred years; without it the price of sugar would have utterly collapsed. Sugar is the most efficient feedstock for ethanol production and using corn (or sorghum and other grains) strictly speaking is a waste. I live near Sugarland, TX. Know why it is called that? Before WW 2 the main things grown within 30 miles of the place was rice and sugarcane. Hasn't been any sugarcane grown around here in probably 60 years. Rice is getting thin too. The sugar that Imperial Sugar produces comes in by rail for refining from Louisiana and Florida now. Simple fact is that sugarcane could be grown on a vast area across the Deep South and SE TX and could be used as a direct feedstock for ethanol production. The cotton industry is dying a slow painful death and sugarcane should be seriously looked at as an alternative and studies done by extension/universities and such. Every year farmers go under and more and more land is turning into subdivisions, and a lot of that land would be suitable for growing sugarcane even if it isn't much good for corn and grains. That said, I recently read something that said for every FIVE QUARTS of ethanol it takes FOUR QUARTS of petroleum to produce it, including all the fuel used to plant, grow, harvest, dry, and transport the crop, heat to distill the alcohol, oil used by petrochemical plants to produce the pesticides necessary to grow the crop, and the natural gas used to make the ammonia fertilizer. That means that to replace our entire current gasoline supply with ethanol would require us to use four times the amount of oil we use currently just to produce and transport it. Clearly that isn't even possible. Ethanol isn't the magic bullet to solve all the energy problems, but I think it can be an important part of it. A sensible ethanol program would help farmers transition to more sustainable farm economy and probably help get the WTO off our backs at the same time, and probably help save a lot of farmland that would sprout subdivisions otherwise by making it profitable to farm. More emphasis on soybeans in the South to make biodiesel would help too. Switchgrass or other such crops for biomass power plants could be a good addition if they're economically viable. Increased fuel economy standards should be a no brainer but seems to be a four letter word to the powers that be. It's got to be a combined effort on many broad fronts if it is to make even a good dent in the energy needs of this country. OL JR :) [/QUOTE]
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