Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
in France would produce about 0.5 Mtoe net (see Table 1), short of the gasoline annual
consumption, 12 Mtoe. Financially, it is difficult to envision this case, as there would be
a lack of revenue to amortize the investment and to pay for fixed operational costs such as
salaries.
5.
Conclusion
In a temperate and humid climate such as in the north of France, sugar beet is cultivated to
produce sugar and prevent its importation from countries with a humid and tropical climate
and where sugar is extracted from cane.
Beet is also processed to produce alcohols, part of which is destined to substitute for
gasoline in transportation (called agro-ethanol). Current quantities are very small against
productions of ethanol from cane and corn (0.5 M tonne oil equivalent toe in 2012 against
12 Mtoe for cane and 24 Mtoe for corn), and above all against those of transportation fuels
from crude oil (about 20 000 Mtoe, with roughly half for gasoline).
Nevertheless, agro-ethanol can be a more accessible market for beet industry than the
sugar one as the latter is increasingly dominated by cane production. The new outlet has
been possible thanks to the rise of crude price, becoming a luxury commodity, and some
public helps in form of subsidizes and mandates. Motorists also contribute by paying the
same price (tax including) for ethanol and gasoline on a volumetric basis, whereas they
have not the same energy value (the value for one liter of ethanol is two thirds that for one
liter of gasoline).
We have assessed the energy consumptions of the entire industry from the farm to the
fuel dispenser to produce one Joule J of ethanol energy. To achieve the analysis, we have
considered a factory dedicated only to ethanol production. It necessitates to perform the
study at the process level, which permits to discard processes used for sugar production
such as juice purification.
Beet growers and ethanol producers have largely improved the productivity and effi-
ciency of operations. Besides, the plant presents some advantages in terms of alternating
culture to reduce synthetic inputs. However, energy requirements remain high especially at
the factory where beet roots are processed into ethanol. Direct consumptions of processes
are equivalent to 66% of the ethanol energy, on a LHV basis, of which 56% at the factory.
They result largely from the high number of operations and the necessity to concentrate the
useful part - sugar, dry matters and ethanol - in the juices and residues extracted from beet
roots. Room for improvements are limited (some gas can be produced from the anaerobic
digestion of stillage, but requires large equipment investment).
Actual overall consumption, mostly in form of crude oil and above all natural gas -
amounts to 86% of the production. Financially, it makes the cost of production of ethanol
quite correlated with fossil fuel prices and, subsequently, potentially linked to gasoline one
(when gas price is close to crude oil one on a LHV basis, as it is the case in France).
An alternative would be for the industry to provide its own requirements owing to
ethanol. It would amount to 66% of the gross production and would necessitate almost
three time as much planted area as in the situation using external energies. Financially,
costs of items other than energy would be difficult to meet. This alternative would be at-
tractive when crude oil and gas prices become higher than the ethanol price in markets.
