Was interested what the BYD Brazil salesman meant by 100% clean. While you can’t get pure ethanol at pumps in the US (largest ethanol fuel producer globally; we have 85% max), Brazil, (2nd largest ethanol fuel producer globally) sells and uses pure ethanol (E100) widely.
Because Brazilian ethanol is made from sugarcane, the CO2 emitted during combustion is roughly equal to the CO2 the plants absorbed while growing. However, the US uses corn. Because we use fossil fuels to make the fertilizer, run the tractors, and boil the corn mash, corn ethanol only reduces greenhouse gases by about 30–45% compared to gasoline. Sugarcane can be harvested multiple times without replanting corn can’t. Sugarcane is mostly simple sucrose, so it takes little energy to ferment into ethanol, unlike corn which must turn starch into sugar first using heat and enzymes.
A neat thing is that lot of Brazilian biomass comes from these used up sugarcane bagasses, converted into energy often on-site by these ethanol producing facilities.
sometimes it is also used to feed cattle, though not common, it is pretty much just fiber no nutrients, it is cheap, and cattle absolutely need fiber or else the digestive system doesnt work, usually sources of fiber that have extra nutrional value are preferred over it but sometimes it is still used though uncommon
you know what… maybe BYD Brazil has some things to sort out, like subjecting workers to conditions described by the government as degrading and similar to slavery
Next, make biodiesel out of all the waste veg oil
