Among biomass fuels, cassava and sweet sorghum are the most promising; just do the calculations to see.
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A comparative analysis using corn, cassava, sugarcane, and sweet sorghum is as follows:Corn, Cassava, Sugarcane, Sweet Sorghum – Yield per mu (tons): 0.8, 5, 8, 3.5 tons; Price per ton: 1200, 900, 200, 140; Alcohol production per ton: 3.3, 2.8, 16, 18 tons; Cost of raw materials for alcohol production: 3960, 2520, 3200, 2520; Other material costs: 600, 600, 300, 300; Value of by-products: -1200, 0, 0, 0; Depreciation: 200, 180, 120, 120. The total cost including management, sales, maintenance, finance, taxes, etc. is 800. Thus, the total cost per ton of alcohol is 4360, 4100, 4420, 3740 respectively. It takes 4 mu of land to produce 1 ton of alcohol from corn, 0.6 mu from cassava, 2 mu from sugarcane, and 5 mu from sweet sorghum. Sugarcane is used for sugar production and cannot be used as fuel at present. Cassava is the most cost-effective option, but only a few acres of land can be used for its cultivation. Corn is not economical; the production in those few provinces is not enough. Sweet sorghum can be grown in almost any type of land. In Gansu and Xinjiang, there are large areas of land – even in a small county, the area amounts to nearly 1/1000 of China’s total land area. Such land is extremely infertile; when cotton is grown on it, the buds are very small, and the yield per mu is only around 200 yuan. However, with sweet sorghum, a yield of two harvests per year can be achieved, resulting in an output of about 500 yuan per mu. **The policy sets a cost of around 1,300 yuan per ton of fuel ethanol; subsidies for corn are reasonable, but without them, companies would go bankrupt.
It seems that utilizing agricultural and forestry waste such as straw is a better option!
According to the reports, wouldn’t it be better to use the fruits of the jatropha tree to produce biodiesel? I wonder how it compares to the one above
It should be sweet sorghum, because there has been no breakthrough in the technologies related to its straw; the main issue is enzyme preparations! The cultivation area of cassava is limited, mainly concentrated in Guangxi and other places! Sugarcane has strong adaptability and is not restricted by region!
In China, corn is still the crop with higher yields, while sweet sorghum has lower yields; this is related to the planting habits of farmers: lol
Let me give an example. Previously, when we planned to build a thermal power plant here, we calculated that it would be profitable. But once it was completed, we lost 10 cents for every unit of electricity not generated. :L Can you guarantee that you have sufficient raw materials? So, others use corn and other materials; there must be a reason why they choose sweet sorghum, as you mentioned.
The prerequisite is to have cassava and sweet sorghum; what’s the use if there are no raw materials? Moreover, one can’t use land meant for growing food crops to cultivate these plants! Straw still has an advantage in terms of raw material availability, and it is also inexpensive.
Corn is still the best; it can be grown in both the north and the south, and it has strong survival capabilities……
Corn is good; otherwise, all those alcohol factories would use sweet sorghum and cassava instead. However, the cultivation of sweet sorghum is subject to many restrictions, and there are issues with cassava that it’s not convenient to discuss here, sorry. If the information is correct, one of the domestic cassava-based alcohol factories is currently facing serious problems and cannot operate as well as those that use corn for alcohol production. Moreover, the current price of cassava is 900 yuan per ton? Based on the consumption rates listed by the original poster, the actual sugar content suggests that a multiplier of 1.5–2 should be applied to this price. Straw is a good option, but there’s no hope of implementing its use in production in the near future.
Given the current prices of corn and cassava, cassava has a clear advantage as a raw material; producing alcohol from cassava is a mature technology, and the alcohol content can be maintained at over 13% (V/v). However, the claim that 2.8 tons of cassava are required per ton of product likely refers to Thai cassava; if Vietnamese cassava is used, more than 2.65 tons will be needed, in which case process-related issues should be investigated.