A lot of people think ethanol is only made from corn and here in the United States that seems to be the case. However, there are other commodities than can be used in the production of ethanol and one of those is sugar cane. A story in today’s Planet Ark out of Sao Paulo, Brazil talks about how ethanol itself is becoming a world traded commodity spurred on by the introduction of flex-fueled vehicles. According to the story, “Brazilian sugar cane mills say they are getting better deals to sell ethanol fuel abroad by extending what used to be only spot market sales into longer-term contracts with flexible pricing, especially with the rise in world oil prices.”

Big Ethanol In Beijing
I know we’re all about “domestic” fuel here so all I’m trying to do is show you that this is big time stuff. I think the regular media sometimes tries to make people think this ethanol thing is just something dreamed up by a bunch of corn farmers. Not!
Growth In Ethanol Demand In India
It isn’t just the United States that’s in on the ethanol growth wave. According to a story in the Mumbai, India, Financial Express, “India’s demand of alcohol for blending and other purposes is expected to reach 2,300 million litres by 2009-10 at 5% blending level.” That’s about 608 million gallons if I did my math right. (1 litres = 0.264172051 US gallons)