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.
