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Two Dozen Nations Attended International Ethanol Conference Jul 01, 2002 - Illinois Corn Growers Association http://www.biobased.org/list.php?storyid=2193 You might have missed it because it didnât get much media attention outside of the Springfield market, but an incredible meeting called the 18th International Fuel Ethanol Workshop is taking place in Springfield, Illinois this week. More than 1,000 people representing two dozen nations are in attendance at this event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Ok, so you say you thought only the U.S., Brazil, and a couple of countries in the European Union make ethanol? Well, you would be right if you specified fuel alcohol. Only a hand full of nations currently have a full-blown fuel ethanol production and marketing industry. The obvious question becomes; then why are people from Australia to Austria sitting through four days of technical speakers on ethanol? It seems there are two categories of ethanol nations today: those currently making ethanol fuel and those desiring to make it real soon! Angela Graf, Director of International Business Development for BBI International, says much of the world is already making potable ethanol ( Ok, its moonshine, bourbon, or some close relative) but few have made the transition to viewing Ag commodities as energy sources...until now. ăMaking this transition wonât be simple, because although they have ethanol production capability, most of the facilities are old. They will have to be upgraded, or new plants will have to be built, that are efficient enough to make fuel grade ethanol competitively,ä Graf said. India, for instance, has 400 sugar mills and nearly every one has a distillery attached making beverage alcohol. However, most would take extensive work to increases efficiency and output. Beverage alcohol sells at a much higher price, so efficiency is not quite so critical to turning a profit. Graf says some nations such as Ukraine, with its sprawling agricultural region, see the promise of turning agriculture into an energy industry. ăThey not only want to make ethanol, but they want to export it,ä Graff said. The motive to make fuel ethanol is to become more energy independent from unstable regions like the Baltics and the Middle East, a Ukrainian representative noted. The developing economy in the Ukraine is still building in the wake of the dismantling of the Soviet Union, and the government is not financially capable of securing their oil supply militarily like the United States. The other thing which seems universal in the drive to make more ethanol in the add value to crops, Graf noted. If successful, this could be a boom for U.S. corn growers. Many of the worldâs ethanol wanna-bes will make their ethanol from sugar which is surplus worldwide, is heavily subsidized, and is in constant competition with corn-based fructose sweetener. Mexico is a good example. The U.S. and Mexico have been engaged in a running gun-battle of a trade dispute for six years over how much Mexican sugar we must import if we want to continue to send the corn and fructose. If the U.S. gets Trade Promotion Authority, one of the first road blocks we could hit in striking advantageous trade agreements could be the sugar quotas and market access to the U.S. Countries in attendance included: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Nigeria, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, Venezuela and the US. ` Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
