Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
generate an electricity surplus. Beet residues are in too small amount and do not suit
fuel specifications to achieve the same role.
PACS 05.45-a, 52.35.Mw, 96.50.Fm
Keywords: Ethanol, Sugar Beet, Energy efficiency, industrial processes
1.
Introduction
Little known in the area of ethanol production from agriculture crops for transportation
fuel - agro-ethanol for short - is the use of sugar beet. It is the counterpart in a humid
and temperate climate, such as in the northern Europe, of a better known sugar plant, the
sugar cane. France is an important producer of beet and the present leader of agro-ethanol
production from the crop.
The oversight is not really surprising given the very modest quantities by comparison
with the productions from other plants such as cane and corn, as shown in Table 3 for 2012.
Nevertheless, agro-ethanol could represent a new outlet for beet culture in lieu of the
sugar market, the latter being more and more difficult owing to the harsh competition from
sugar cane and the progressive end of protectionism measures. In USA, where beet is not
used for agro-ethanol, some beet producers are carrying out pilot projects to produce it [1].
As an advanced agro-fuel agro-ethanol from beet benefits from a regulated market imposed
by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
A fact also not very well known is the higher sugar yields than for cane per tonne of
harvested plant and per ha of planted area, as shown in Table 3. As a result, the average
ethanol yield is about 7.5 m
3
·
(ha
·
y)
−
1
for beet in France against about 5.5 m
3
·
(ha
·
y)
−
1
for
sugar cane in Brazil.
After describing succinctly the history of this industry until now, we present some pro-
duction statistics concerning sugar beet: its production in the world and in some leading
countries like France, general production of sugar and the share of beet on it, and produc-
tion of agro-ethanol.
In the second part we describe the processes to extract sugar from beet and to transform
it into ethanol, as well as their energy requirements. Improvements but also limitations are
indicated.
Those requirements are finally compared to the ones of the industries to produce gaso-
line from crude oil and ethanol from sugar cane.
2.
From the Origin to Now
For more details, see the topic written by Ballerini et al. [2].
If the first cultures of beet to extract sugar date back from the beginning of 19th century,
its use to produce agro-ethanol is concomitant to the development of motorized car, i.e. the
beginning of the 20th century. In passing the same happened to other crops, corn in USA
and cane in Brazil. Of course production of alcohol from these plants had predated the
internal combustion engine.
