Using Sugar Beets for Ethanol & Methanol Conversion
One of our readers recently submitted the following question: After reading Robert Zubrin's book Energy Victory I have two questions. Can ethanol production facilities make or be converted to make methanol and are sugar beets being used to any significant degree in Colorado to produce ethanol as a substitute for corn?
These are great questions. The sugarbeet industry in Colorado produces refined sugar, a commodity that has seen large price fluctuations over the years, making it a difficult business in which to achieve consistent profits. The Great Western Sugar company once had more than a dozen sugar beet processing plants in Colorado but now has only one plant left in Fort Morgan. There are no plants I'm aware of that use refined sugar as feedstock to produce ethanol because refined sugar is more valuable than the ethanol that can be derived from it. Similarly, I know of no alcohol plants in the U.S. that use sugar beets as an input.
Sugarbeets are not as flexible a feedstock as corn for a continuous
process like large-scale alcohol production. Beets are harder to
handle than grain crops because of their lower energy density and must
be harvested and processed quickly, so that their sugar content does
not chemically degrade. Corn can be dried and stored for months or
years, which allows the processing plants that use corn as a feedstock
to run all year round thereby making better use of their capital
expense. You'll also note from Zubrin's book that that amount of
maximum ethanol yield that could be produced per acre is nearly the
same when comparing corn to sugar beets (i.e. about 400-450
gallons/acre/yr).
The processing plants that make corn ethanol are highly tuned to produce ethanol from corn grain only. The processing equipment contains automated feeding and processing mechanisms all the way from the rail cars that deliver the grain to the tanker cars that take away the ethanol. It would not be practical to convert a plant constructed to make alcohol from corn to another feedstock. This is typical of many processing plants. All of the equipment inside fits together like a giant puzzle.
If you can get ethanol from a feedstock, it wouldn't be advantageous to settle for methanol. Methanol's lower cost today is likely due to the fact that most of it is derived from non-renewable sources such as natural gas which is still inexpensive and abundant. Methanol has lower energy content than ethanol and is much more corrosive and toxic. I believe Zubrin's enthusiasm for methanol is related to the fact that it's easier to convert cellulosic and other non-food sources of biomass into methanol. Converting food products into motor fuel is a source of a lot of controversy and presumably methanol won't be similarly stigmatized. Having said that, there are initiatives by several companies to convert cellulosic materials directly into ethanol.
I agree with Zubrin that all cars manufactured today should be able to run on any form of alcohol fuel or gasoline. At one time, this was costly, but now that all fuel systems need to handle ethanol in gasoline anyway, and engine computers can adjust the air-fuel ratios accordingly based on feedback from sensors, there's really no reason not to make all vehicles flex-fuel capable.
These are great questions. The sugarbeet industry in Colorado produces refined sugar, a commodity that has seen large price fluctuations over the years, making it a difficult business in which to achieve consistent profits. The Great Western Sugar company once had more than a dozen sugar beet processing plants in Colorado but now has only one plant left in Fort Morgan. There are no plants I'm aware of that use refined sugar as feedstock to produce ethanol because refined sugar is more valuable than the ethanol that can be derived from it. Similarly, I know of no alcohol plants in the U.S. that use sugar beets as an input.
Sugarbeets are not as flexible a feedstock as corn for a continuous
process like large-scale alcohol production. Beets are harder to
handle than grain crops because of their lower energy density and must
be harvested and processed quickly, so that their sugar content does
not chemically degrade. Corn can be dried and stored for months or
years, which allows the processing plants that use corn as a feedstock
to run all year round thereby making better use of their capital
expense. You'll also note from Zubrin's book that that amount of
maximum ethanol yield that could be produced per acre is nearly the
same when comparing corn to sugar beets (i.e. about 400-450
gallons/acre/yr).The processing plants that make corn ethanol are highly tuned to produce ethanol from corn grain only. The processing equipment contains automated feeding and processing mechanisms all the way from the rail cars that deliver the grain to the tanker cars that take away the ethanol. It would not be practical to convert a plant constructed to make alcohol from corn to another feedstock. This is typical of many processing plants. All of the equipment inside fits together like a giant puzzle.
If you can get ethanol from a feedstock, it wouldn't be advantageous to settle for methanol. Methanol's lower cost today is likely due to the fact that most of it is derived from non-renewable sources such as natural gas which is still inexpensive and abundant. Methanol has lower energy content than ethanol and is much more corrosive and toxic. I believe Zubrin's enthusiasm for methanol is related to the fact that it's easier to convert cellulosic and other non-food sources of biomass into methanol. Converting food products into motor fuel is a source of a lot of controversy and presumably methanol won't be similarly stigmatized. Having said that, there are initiatives by several companies to convert cellulosic materials directly into ethanol.
I agree with Zubrin that all cars manufactured today should be able to run on any form of alcohol fuel or gasoline. At one time, this was costly, but now that all fuel systems need to handle ethanol in gasoline anyway, and engine computers can adjust the air-fuel ratios accordingly based on feedback from sensors, there's really no reason not to make all vehicles flex-fuel capable.
Biomass Resources
Biomass Companies
Leave a comment