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wrote:

Duane Bozarth wrote:
wrote:

Ethanol is better deal to date...

Made from corn? I have been wondering if it would not be better to
use sorghum, which grows well over much of the same range as corn,
for producing the sugar used to make ethanol.

Primarily corn, yes. Sorghum doesn't have nearly the sugar content of
corn and nowhere nor the yield/acre.

I gather that the suagar/acre ration is lower for sorghum. I'm
not surprised that the corn kernals have a higher concentration
of sugar than the sorghum stalks but am surpised that there is
more sugar in the whole corn plant, than in the whole sorghum plant.
When corn is raised for ethanol production, do they squeeze the
whole plant, rather than just the kernals?

No, the grain is the feedstock, not the plant...the grain must ripen to
achiece maximum energy content (and as a secondary necessity, must be
dry enough to be handled and stored w/o danger of mold damage and
spontaneous combustion) and at that time the sugars in the foliage are
largely used up.

I'm surprised ther eis more sugar in corn kernals than in the entire
sorghum plant. I'm not clear on why the grain is stored at all. It
seems ot me it would be more efficient to continuously process it
as it is harvested and just tank the jiuce. E.g. make the 'squeezer'
part of the combine.

I've done some more looking specifically wrt to grain sorghum as
feedstock vis a vis corn and discover my perceptions were based on my
past knowledge regarding feed value more than current state of ethanol
production. In an summary assessment done by a KSU researcher, the
difference in grain feedstock is actually nearly immaterial to the
overall NEV and only a factor economically based on the actual
price--grain sorghum w/ it's historic discount as opposed to corn is
actually somewhat of a benefit. The major difference (and what confused
me) in NEV between, say, 1995 and present is not nearly as much
attributable to the feedstock as it is essentially all owing to
enhancements in the process itself.

What is apparently a limiting factor for ethanol may well be how to
generate sufficient market for the byproducts which are necessary to be
sold in order to make the profitability of the producing plants. The
distillers grains are feed for livestock but it appears there may become
a point at which there can not be sufficient demand for all that would
be produced.