Suzuki’s Cars Will Run On 100% Ethanol in US, Brazil by 2010
According to the Nikkei Business Daily (via Tradingmarkets.com), Japan’s Suzuki Motor Company will begin selling cars that run completely on 100% ethanol in the US and Brazil by 2010. The company will begin the transition by first offering an E25 sedan for sale in Brazil this coming March.
Currently the most ethanol that a flex-fuel car can run on in the US is E85 — which is an 85% ethanol/15% gasoline blend. Suzuki’s move would mark a huge development in ethanol-powered vehicles, and a huge shift for Suzuki, which hasn’t had any alternative fuel-specific offerings in its lineup to this point.
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Ethanol use in the US has risen sharply recently, however, it still accounts for a small amount of the fuel sold. On the other hand, in Brazil ethanol is just as prevalent as gasoline and is available at nearly all fuel stations.
The Brazilian ethanol industry is experiencing amazing growth right now — so much so that the President of UNICA, Marcos Jank, thinks it shows that ethanol does work as a fuel source and doesn’t have to compete with food crops.
The Brazilian ethanol industry is based on the conversion of sugarcane to ethanol and, according to reports, it is a completely self-sustaining industry.
Some key facts of Brazilian ethanol production:
- All fuel sold in Brazil contains a 20-25% blend of ethanol
- The unsubsidized ethanol industry offers a fuel that is on average $1 below the price of gas
- Virtually all 33,000 gas pumps offer E100
- Just 1% of the 40% of arable land in Brazil is being used to produce sugarcane ethanol
- 45% of fuel for cars is from sugarcane
- The food industry is growing faster than the ethanol industry
- 90% of all new automobiles sold are flex-fuel automobiles
- 100% of GM vehicles produced in Brazil are flex-fuel
- 20% of all cars on the road are flex-fuel vehicles today
If those numbers aren’t proof that bio-ethanol can work, I don’t know what is. The US’ problem is that we’re focused on the wrong plant (corn) for ethanol production right now. But that’s changing and hopefully soon the naysayers won’t have any legs to stand on.
I applaud Suzuki for its bold steps in addressing the future needs of the US before there’s even a market to support it.
Posts Related to Ethanol and the Food vs. Fuel Debate:
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- Cellulosic Ethanol Primer: Let’s Call it “Celluline”
- Dedicated Energy Crops Could Replace 30% of Gasoline: Ceres, Inc. Wants to Make it Happen
- Prototype Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid: 88 MPG on 85% Ethanol
- Ethanol Use in US and Brazil Rises Sharply
- USDA Says Ethanol Accounts for Only 3% of Increased Cost of Food
- “Perfect Storm” Inflating Food Prices Worldwide
- Biodiesel Myth (Or Fact?) #23: Biodiesel is Raising Food Prices
- Europe’s EPA Advises Suspending Biofuel Targets
- 2015: 30% of US Corn Harvest Will Be Gasoline
Image Credits: Suzuki Motor Company
Corn Ethanol critics routinely omit this fact: Less than half of the corn kernel is used to make ethanol, only the starch. The other half is made into distillers grain, which is fed to animals to produce food. Distillers grain, the byproduct of corn ethanol, improves the energy balance and increases food production. Though it is cheaper, it actually has a higher food value than whole corn as a feed product, because it contains about 10% fat and 90% protein, which are both superior to starch.
Grass is the natural food for dairy cows and beef cows, not whole corn. For pigs, with a natural diet of starchy root vegetables, rodents and insects, whole corn is not so bad. Poultry would eat whole corn in the wild, but the availability would be limited. They would also eat a variety of local seeds, worms and insects. Feeding whole corn to cows, pigs and poultry is not their natural diet, although it works. It is better to supplement animals with high protein distillers grains than whole corn. When dairy cows are given a 10% supplement of distillers grains, milk production increases by 10 lb per week per cow, and livestock generally put on 10% more meat. This should be a credit to the ethanol industry. Also, it is possible to make distillers grains into high protein foods for direct human consumption. Corn ethanol is food and fuel and always has been.
Merrill Lynch reports that ethanol blended into regular gasoline lowers the cost by 14 to 24 cents per gallon and reduces our Trade Deficit caused by importing foreign oil. The Trade Deficit we pay interest on, because we pay for imported oil and fuel with debt instruments which are added to the National Debt. Pay no interest on domestic ethanol. The benefits of ethanol and distillers grains offset the impact of higher food prices due to consuming 15% of the corn crop (by weight) in the form of starch.
The recent roller coaster ride that crude oil went on had a much bigger impact on food prices than corn ethanol. Try shipping a ton of corn from Iowa to a tortia factory in Arizona and see what happens to the price. When oil goes up, ALL food prices go up across the board, including corn. Corn had no impact on rice, and the price of rice doubled.
Americans are consuming a huge amount of fuel to wage two wars. They also bombed Iraqi infrastructure and cutoff half of Iraqi oil production. This too has driven up the demand and the price of crude oil and the fuels we consume. Speculative investors in oil and commodities futures caused artificial demand, which also drove up the price of fuels and food. OPEC is restricting oil production, and Big Oil is manipulating the supply line of crude oil and refined fuels. The first half of this year, Big Oil also exported 9% of American produced gasoline and diesel fuel, and then imported more expensive foreign fuels, which they sold to you. Your wars, your investors, your cartels, and your 5 oil conglomerates are costing you extra money at the pump and at the grocery store.
Theres only 7 cents worth of corn in a box of corn flakes. Then why do you pay $3 for it? Because 75% of what you pay for at the supermarket is processing labor and overhead, shipping costs, and marketing labor and overhead. These are all in an inflationary spiral. The complaints against corn ethanol are way overblown.
The State of Louisiana working with Renergie is building a network of small, localized ethanol plants, based on sweet sorghum, that are expected to get a 5 to 1 return. Every year, a higher percentage of ethanol is coming from other feedstocks: sweet sorghum, organic waste, algae and biomass. This will have a big impact on our domestic fuel supply and also weigh-in on our National Security.
America is a nation plagued by over consumption. If you are overweight, consider this: You too are contributing to the higher demand for food and impacting the price. Everyone get down to your ideal weight. That will drop food prices faster than whining about corn ethanol.
Very good point Jeff. The part of the corn, the starch that is used to make ethanol has no nutritional value. This is also the part of the corn that puts “fat” on beef cattle. I think we can all agree that “lean” beef is heathier for the consumer and contains more protien.
The point being you might pay more for a pound of beef, but you are buying less fat.
Another point not mentioned in any of the energy conversion tables is the amount of energy used to extract crude oil, ship it half way around the world, and refine it.
It would seem to me, that this is viable as every aspect of making ethanol seems to be included. from planting, fertilizing, harvesting, and distilling.
I mean come on America! Facts are facts, ethanol from corn makes food healthier. If farmers have found a way to remove the starch from their feedstocks it won’t end up as a spare tire around your belly.
Although there is no way that corn etanol is going to replace gasoline, we may as well use the starch/complex carbohydrate sugar to fuel our cars. The alternative is if we don’t, We end up going to the Gym to consume electricity to walk it off.
In conjunction with algae from ponds, corn/ethanol can reduce our dependance on oil. You don’t even have to buy a new car to get this going. A $200 computer chip will convert your existing car.
The only problem with cars run on ethanol is that the energy conversion rate is shitty and MPG’s falls drastically.
It make no sense to make cars to run ethanol. It takes extra energy to make ethanol and it will take 28% more fuel using e85. So a 30MPG car would get 21.6 using just e85 Ethanol. 85%.
Look at the site
http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1147098565893.xml
Battery is the way to go in the future.
Dude, didnt the US already try the ethanol thing one time and it flopped?
Rd
http://www.FireMe.to/udi
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I tell you this. A battery car with a motorcycle engine to charge the battery when the battery reaches a point is the most eff. The car should be designed to charge down hill or coasting on inertia physics. Some motorcycles get over a 100 MPG and without weight would get well over a 100 MPG.
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Flex-fuel cars can run on 100% ethanol, there is a different reason E-85 contains gasoline. The gasoline is added to de-nature the alcohol. If this was not done, the ethanol fuel would be drinkable and beverage taxes would have to be paid. Beyond that, if it were taxed as a beverage, it would have to meet the specification of whiskey or burbon, so it would have to be aged in oak barrels for 4 or 8 years. Basically, it’s white lightning before the gasoline is added.
i was thinking. What if we put magnets under the wheel wells of all 4 tires and use the rims of tires to create a magneto like in a lawn mower to produce electricity to charge a battery car too? Just using old technology a new way.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question375.htm