Posted on 08/16/2012 5:15:37 AM PDT by thackney
The federal government is on the verge of approving a grain mainly used as livestock feed to make a cleaner version of ethanol, a decision officials say could give farmers a new moneymaking opportunity, boost the biofuels industry and help the environment.
A plant in western Kansas already is gearing up to take advantage, launching a multimillion-dollar renovation so it can be the first to turn sorghum — a plant similar in appearance to corn — into advanced ethanol. Advanced biofuels result in even less lifetime greenhouse gas production than conventional biofuels, measuring from the time a crop is planted to when the fuel is burned in a vehicle.
The only advanced biofuels in the United States now are sugar cane-based ethanol imported from Brazil and domestic biodiesel, a mixture of petroleum diesel and renewable sources such as soybean oil, said Matt Hartwig, spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association. Advanced ethanol made from sorghum would give the nation another option as it aims to meet the federal goal of producing 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels per year by 2022.
More idiocy. It costs more to make this ethanol, uses up soil resources, and produces a diluted fuel which causes harm to engines. And then they try to say that this is good for the environment!
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
The government is involved, what could go wrong?
However, it is likely the diversion of feed crops will cause an increase in the price of livestock (and meat).
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), also known as milo, has a variety of uses including food for human consumption, feed grain for livestock and industrial applications such as ethanol production. The area planted to sorghum worldwide has increased by 66 percent over the past 50 years, while yield has increased by 244 percent. Around half of the sorghum produced is fed to livestock, and half is consumed by humans and used in other applications.Sorghum is grown in 14 states.
Historically, Kansas and Texas have been the top two sorghum-producing states. In 2011 the two states retained their ranking as leading producers, harvesting 78 percent of the U.S. sorghum crop. Kansas produced 110 million bushels valued at $671 million, while Texas produced 56 million bushels valued at $331 million. Other states producing large quantities of grain sorghum include Oklahoma, Colorado, South Dakota, Louisiana and Nebraska.
http://www.agmrc.org/commodities__products/grains__oilseeds/sorghum/sorghum_profile.cfm
Agreed. I detest ethenol for what it does to small engines. Another example of unintended consquences.
Ethanol. doesn’t work.
Since the juice from the stalks of sorghum is not much different than juice from sugarcane, if they don't have a way to process the juice out in the location where it's raised, they will probably be going backwards.
You can't stack wet sorghum for processing later. It will catch on fire.
It will probably cost more to produce than you get out of it.
Once I thought that Ethanol was a good idea, now though? It only makes sense when there are bumper crops and it’s either convert to ethanol or leave the grain to rot or be eaten by rodents.
Burning our food just doesn’t seem to make sense anymore especially with all of the new petroleum coming on-line through new production techniques.
I believe there is a moral component to the act of selfishly burning our food for fuel.
Looking at the bright side, these critters love milo and as a result, the vast crop fields in Western Kansas have become some of the best bird hunting in the world. Fun to bag, great to eat, sells guns, more income for farmers, and it p*sses off PETA libtards.
For decades Americans have shown the world how to grow more food than they can possibly eat.
So much food that they can BURN it to heat their houses, power their cars AND STILL HAVE TOO MUCH GRAIN!
They have rejected our ideas and methods.
There is a price for stubborn stupidity.
LET THE BASTARDS STARVE TO DEATH.
My wife is a gardener and often grows cherry tomatoes.
The plants usually produce a surprising (at least to me) abundance of fruit for their size and space and many varieties are incredibly sweet.
I’ve often wondered if those couldn’t be an alternative source of sugar for ethanol production compared to corn or perhaps as an alternative to sugar beets. Don’t know enough about the soil requirements, but it seems cherry tomatoes are a lot less demanding and produce for a longer period than corn.
I imagine harvesting is not as easy to automate though.
Pheasants used to be a very common sight (and sound) here in southern Michigan but with the return of the native turkeys pheasants are increasingly rare.
The cattle industry is no friend of the Marxists in Washington nor to the animal rights nuts so this would be right up the enemy within’s alley.
If they can make meat too expensive they will have succeeded in nudging us in the direction the FWOTUS (First Wookie of the USA) wants us to follow.
We have all the energy we need right here in the USA and we do not need to be burning our fuel. To unleash this USA energy would simply require ejecting all the Marxists in the WH and more importantly congress.
We need to get away from this E-fuel BS. Now they want to go after another feed grain?? Makes one think that they also have some PETA thinking in addition to the silly climate change poop.
Brazil is awash in ethanol and they really would like to export it to us, but the US taxes their ethanol to the point its not imported and instead we stupidly burn our food.
The watermelon greenies be damned!
The question left unanswered is: how much did the owner of the Kentucky processing plant contribute to the Obama campaign?
Why not something useless that grows aggressively with minimal or no care? Kudzu comes to mind, or goldenrod or endless other weeds suited to their particular niches?
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