Comments by "Andy Dee" (@AndyViant) on "Engineering Explained"
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Corn based ethanol is simply an example of how corrupt American politics is, particularly political lobbying for special interests.
Sugarcane based ethanol is, depending on location it is grown, between 7 and 16 times more efficient, but doesn't get assistance. Because Congress wants to favour midwestern corn farmers (and of course oil extractors).
Ok, most of the USA can't grow the most efficient option, sugar cane, because of climactic conditions. But why not sugar beet?
Sugar beet is at least twice as efficient as corn although still only about a quarter as efficient as sugar cane. Like corn, the leftovers make good animal fodder or can be used for other forms of bioenergy, but it needs less fertilizer and is better for soil health than corn.
The return of ethanol per kilo of corn grain in theory looks better than sugar beet (11kg of grain per gallon versus 18kg of beet per gallon), but that figure ignores that most of the corn plant is not actually the harvestable corn. Far more of the beet plant by mass is actually the harvestable material.
So why isn't America using Sugar Beet? It grows well in cold Europe and even in Russia. You can grow it in the colder, less efficient farming states too.
Well, despite America being a net sugar importer, there still isn't the incentive to grow it. Due to such corruption of the lobbying process it doesn't want to grow sugar, nor does it want to import more sugar. Likewise, even in areas where both could be grown, farmers don't want to convert from growing corn to beet, because they get paid more in subsidies for growing corn so much so that it's worth more to grow corn and then let it rot than have a viable saleable crop of sugar beet or cane sugar.
This is why everything is sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup and other abominations, but I digress.
Because of this ridiculous surplus of corn, uses had to be found. Despite the appalling inefficiency of corn as a biofuel source, America has enormous stockpiles of the stuff, and the federal government is paying farmers ludicrous amounts to grow more, while blocking more efficient sugar sources due to domestic politics and international protectionism (free trade hahahaha what).
Biofuel can make sense. Just not the way the American lobbying industry has corrupted the science.
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