Posted March 28, 2014
Companies in North Dakota and California are planning to test the feasibility of raising sugar beets for ethanol, according to a Capital Press article available here.
David Ripplinger, a North Dakota State University agricultural economist, found that a “sugar beet ethanol plant would yield 20 million gallons of biofuel per year.” It “would be supplied by 30,000 dryland sugar beet acres in central North Dakota, where beets aren’t currently grown but could provide a rotation option to break up soil compaction.”
Ripplinger also said that smaller plants are more economical, minimizing transportation costs.
Compared to corn, “Ripplinger said beets can yield about double the sugar per acre, and in immediate usable form rather than corn starch that must be converted prior to fermentation.” In addition, “beet-based ethanol releases about half of the carbon dioxide of gasoline and may qualify as an advanced biofuel.”
In northern California, Frank Schubert hopes to open the first U.S. sugar beet ethanol plant. He hopes to start construction this summer on a $190 million ethanol plant in a former sugar beet processing facility. Schubert predicts a growing sugar beet ethanol industry in the next 5-10 years.
For more information on renewable energy, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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