Here's a radical idea:

Instead of burning all those stalks, pile them up with some old poop (any sort will do, but if you're squeemish, stick to the bovine sort), and six months later, you'll have mounds of fresh, clean compost. Spread this on the fields for the next round of sugarcane, etc, and you've got a nice, green loop.

And you can feel good about running on ethanol.

The Brazilian ethanol cars are of two types, flex-fuel(which go 100%gas to 100% ethanol - but the ethanol must be expensively refined fuel grade, as used in the US) and 100% ethanol,, as You know
cars that use gas are only 9.0-9.5:1 compression engines, where the 100% ethanol car engines are about 12:1 compression, thereby making up the difference in the 110,000btu/gal for gas vs the 97,000btu/gal ethanol ~ I have been trying to get
some help to Import a couple of the 100% ethanol cars into the US for testing ~ another key thing,
the 100% ethanol cars use 'neat ethanol' or 'water ethanol' which is only about 92%, and is therefore much cheaper to produce,,
Somebody out there please help me with some contacts in Brazil, that can work with to get these imported into the US - (641)218-8666 -LFM

Make sure that the safety features match Fed and State requirements or you'll not be allowed to import and get them registered. There are other differences of course, like gas tank size and the rubber tube/tank materials. Also, because alcohol is hygroscopic, breather inlets have to be controlled to prevent dilution.

I heard you can replace up to 70% of gasoline in a car with ethanol and it will run fine, without damaging the engine.

Ethanol cars

Something that people seem to not understand or are ignoring is the fact that the stalks once sqeezed of all thier sugar is not totaly useless, as some would say, making sugare and then ethanol takes energy, and many if not all of those ethanol facilities use the waste materials to power thier on site power plants.

Its also a little know fact that until the 1950's Hawaii, a Large producer of cane sugar did not need to import oil or coal for power generation, namely due to the fact that the sugar cane factory had a onsite cane stalk fired power plant, and the plant did not need all the energy produce.

So bottom line is that sugar cane stalks might not have as high an energy density as coal but its still has uses besides a bonfire in the fields.

The only real enviromental impact is that growing enough sugar cane takes alot of land and that means rain forest incursions.

all, from a MS Chemical Engineer, 100% ethanol is the way to go.

everyone here is correct. with 100% ethanol, the compression ratio of the car can be increased (like a diesel) and the fuel economy raised.

on the production side of the coin, waste wood, waste food-stuffs, and any cellulosic material can be processed. there is much research into the arena of enzymes and yeast to process "all" of the sugars to yield ethanol. then what little material is left can be used in the process for heat. many complex unit operations already involve most of these efficiencies.

on the public and political side, there needs to be an urgent call for energy indepence on foreign oil. we can replace all of our foreign oil consumption with biodiesel and ethanol. the trend should be slowly (with flex fuel vehicles) but there should be a governmental plan (ie 20 year) to go from petroleum products to biorefined products.

this is a great website!!!

I bought a 2002 Chrysler Town and Country. It as a Flex Fuel vehicle....How ever I can not find any retail suppliers to buy Ethanol. Does anyone know of a source in the Palm Springs California are that sells Ethanol?

I am soooo glad to find out there are others out there who are interested in conversion to ehtanol...if Brazil can do it so can we...if we could make our voices heard and get our elected representatives to get on it we could make some head way....I have believed for years that ethanol and biodiesel could change our country around!...how does one go about starting a pumping station and importing flex-fuel cars?!

Thoughts from a country bumkin...

100% Ethanol will never be a good idea because there will always be those who think it's better to drink than to put in the tank. That's why the 15% gasoline added to E85 keeps the "shine" drinkers at bay.

Henry Ford designed the Model T and Model A to run on ethanol (in addition to gasoline) simply because gasoline distribution wasn't widely in place in America at that time. Quite a few people back in the day were familiar with making their own "fuel" in the form of grain alcohol - partly thanks to prohibition.

I can buy E85 at the corner station right now for $1.75/gal here in central Minnesota. I would love to see a dedicated ethanol powered economy vehicle come the US... one that could take full advantage of the greater BTU efficiency ethanol has to offer over gasoline. What would be ideal is something similar to the old VW rabbit pickups, something that actually has a hint of utilitarian value vs. the virtually useless hybrids that are being offered now. I don't want to drive something just to make a green statement; I want to drive something that is super efficient that can actually haul something... other than my own butt. Until you have a dedicated E85 engine in a vehicle, ethanol will never see it's true potential.

The numerous ethanol plants cropping up here in MN convert feed corn into ethanol. I'm surprised that no one seemed to mention that the byproduct silage from the distillation process makes an excellent feed for livestock - farmers around here like it even better than corn silage because it's cheaper and doesn't cause bloating in their cattle.

To the reader who heard any car can run on 70% ethanol, I wouldn't try it unless you don't mind destroying your fuel delivery system. Cars not designed for ethanol have o-rings, rubber fuel lines and seals that will turn to black goo when exposed to alcohol. Just having 10% Ethanol mixed in the gasoline of my vintage aircraft was enough to cause a power failure on takeoff due to an "updated" rubber tipped needle valve in the carburetor. Even a small amount of Ethanol can be downright dangerous to equipment not designed for it.

For those that think ethanol will never work in America, I say you're foolishly underestimating American ingenuity. You speak as though all technology in refinement stopped at the year 2004 and will never advance beyond that. Yes it is subsidized at this point but it has to be otherwise the infrastructure will never take root. Every new plant built makes advances in refinement efficiency. Ethanol combined with modern high tech, highly efficient vehicles is the answer.

"100% Ethanol will never be a good idea because there will always be those who think it's better to drink than to put in the tank."

I think that all commercially sold ethanol is denatured in some way. Even "100% ethanol" is probably undrinkable (maybe +/-1% gasoline, or something else).

Another drawback is that ethanol cars take a while to warm up when it's cold outside. While this is fine for most of Brazil (there are some pretty cold areas in the South), I'm not sure how well this would work out in the US.

I just wanted to thank everyone who posts their coments. It is nice to hear from other people who care as much about our environmrent and our futur as I do. I am just a freshman in high school and we have been doing a lot of research on alternative fuel sources. With research and the coments on this website, I am very convinced that when it is time for me to drive I will get at least a flex fuel car. Who knows, by the time I am ready to drive maybe they will have come up with something even better. Maybe i'm a little optimistic, but i think there is a good possibility that something new is on the rise. The information some of you have posted sounds like it can be built apon, it might just need younger people with new ideas. Thanks again for the information. I love learning about different ways I can help the environment and how things work.

Well as per the comment about cold climate, we have the same problem with petroleum powered vehicles, nothing is perfect... install a block heater to warm the car at a safe temperature (passive solar energy could be used for this as well.)

Drinking the ethanol is not a good idea, I did it in grade 11 chemistry, and I can still feel the burning, and if that's not enough to turn you off, then you have earned the right to drink it, who cares, it's renewable, so if someone wants some cheap booze, all the more power to them.

Beware of Big Oil Propaganda:

Those complaining about losing fuel to alcoholics and party types are full of nonsense. Beer has ethanol in it for instance, so that sector of society is already consuming plenty of ethanol.

Many of the big oil kingpins pay individuals with public relations and journalism degrees to downplay the positive benefits of ethanol and going green. I can tell you one of the drawbacks to gasoline: some of America's youth like to huff gasoline and this only tears at the 'moral fabric of society' and kills brain cells. The argument goes both ways as you can see, so don't be worried about recreational consumption.

We should not let other people's behavior spook us out of progress on a good and noble idea. Ethanol is one of those ideas we need to move forward on to bring about mass acceptance. Moving forward will help our earth and benefit humanity.

Ethanol is a huge problem however for big oil interests becase with every gallon of ethanol consumed, that's one gallon of renewable fuel replacing a fraction of fossil fuel market share. Trust me: big oil does not want to lose any profits and that is exactly what our optimistic and hopeful discussions threaten to do-- create huge losses for big bank accounts derrived by raping the earth and lobbying Congress.

There is much work to be done in Washington, D.C. and with the mass media to bring lawmakers and consumers on board with green ideals. Changing over to renewable energy will require a lot of grass roots advocacy and public demands for better sustainable fuel.

Great progress is being made on these issues however. And it is evident to me that our resolve to move forward will be a total success. We will change society.

In regards to the concern of people drinking the ethanol, 100% ethanol is typically spiked with methanol. (In case you're wondering, methanol is also occasionally used as alternative fuel.)

ETHANOL CARS RULE THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't care about Global Warming!
I do care about our total energy independence.
Without our being energy independent I don't think we will be here long enough for warming to be a concern.
Develop heartier sugar cane, drill in Alaska, drill off Florida's coast, put windmills outside the Kennedy's and Bush's back doors, build a few nuke plants, make "Flex" or fuel cell vehicles mandatory in 10 years not 20. This stuff is Green too!
-C

I'm not very mechanically inclined, so please don't laugh at this question. Is it possible and, if so, feasible to convert a hybrid car to a flex fuel car?

Actually the amazing thing about Brazil using sugar cane is that it IS the stalks and "waste" that is being turned into ethanol...that takes care of your concern i think