Fuels from Sugar Crops: Systems Study for Sugarcane, Sweet Sorghum, and Sugar Beets

This review presents the outcome of a comprehensive evaluation of sugar crops as renewable resources for the production of fuels and chemical feedstocks by Battelle Columbus Laboratories. Agricultural considerations affecting sugarcane, sweet sorghum, and sugar beets gleaned from Battelle staff, field interviews, and literature research provide background information for projecting future yields, crop areas, and costs as they pertain to energy farming. Conversion considerations developed through the interviews and literature research form the basis for extensive calculations pertaining to the numerous alternative means of converting sugar crops into fuels and chemical feedstocks. This review contains a general systems analysis of the use of sugar crops as raw materials for producing fuels and chemical feedstocks and a discussion of the major issues affecting the feasibility and implementation of the concept. In technical economic analysis the substitutability of sugar-crop products for nonrenewable resources is developed so that alternatives can be placed in perspective. Research, development, and demonstration needs relating to the development of sugar crops as renewable resources for the manufacture of fuels and chemical feedstocks are discussed.