Sweet sorghum is a much better ethanol feed stock than corn or switchgrass cellulose. Sweet sorghum has been grown in the US midwest for over a hundred years, originally for molasses as a substitute for cane sugar. It can produce almost as much sugar as cane and it grows well anywhere that corn can be grown. In fact, it requires less water, fertilizer, pesticides, and human attention than corn and can be grown profitably where corn cannot.
The same machinery used to produce alcohols from sugar cane can be used with sweet sorghum. Its waste material after juice extraction can be used in the same way as sugar cane waste. Cattle like to eat the waste cellulose and it can also be used to produce more ethanol, etc. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and VeraSun Energy (VSE) do not have to go to Brazil to start producing ethanol from sugar cane. Instead, they should talk to farmers about producing sweet sorghum instead of corn. In India, ethanol is already being produced from sweet sorghum. The CEOs running U.S. companies may think that they needed a few million Indian immigrants to handle their Y2K disaster, but surely our farmers can still grow sweet sorghum.
The vehicles and fuels we should use in the future are not simply covered by the plug-in label, either. In Brazil, they have been using around 25% ethanol blends in vehicles made in Detroit for many years. E85 gets poor mileage in Detroit’s current flex-fuel vehicles because of their low compression ratios. Ford (F) is starting to use turbo charging to get better MPG in their vehicles. This should allow us to use more alcohol fuels in our transition from OPEC terrorist oil dependence to domestic solutions and electric vehicles.
The GM (GM) Volt extended range electric vehicle is still scheduled to come out in 2010. Advances in the nano technology used to produce new batteries should allow us to replace the majority of our internal combustion engine vehicles in ten or twenty years.
Economically producing green electric power and developing smart electric grids to deliver it are also possible now. And the alcohol we produce for fuel can also be used to produce the chemicals including plastics that we will always need. ADM has already committed to producing biodegradable plastic from biomass. If the scientists of the world can just get our politicians to listen instead of leading society on their next wild goose chase, our future should be bright.
Disclosure: Author owns a small amount of ADM stock.
