Sake may power Japanese cars of the future

The government-funded project will produce cheap rice-origin ethanol brew with the help of local farmers who will donate farm waste.

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[mike.gw]

But is rice better than corn environmentally?

I've read that there is a downside to the US approach of creating bio-fuels from corn. Corn crops are soil nutrient and water intensive. Large scale corn crops run the risk of depleting soil of nutrients to grow future crops.

Will rice farms also tax the environment?

[suyts]

Not really for corn.

Farmers today understand the importance of crop rotation. They don't just plant the same crop in the same field season after season. They rotate the crops. One season corn, the next wheat, the next soy bean, ect., often they will let a field go fallow and allow the cattle to graze. Cattle waste will replenish the land to enable a new cycle of crops. This doesn't always hold true, there are other variables, but that's the abbreviated version. What I don't understand, is why does it have to be corn. Any plant can produce ethanol. The process is essentially the same. I know. I've made ethanol out of dandelions. It wasn't very tasty but effective. Can someone tell me why it has to be corn? As far as rice, I can only assume the farmers there have developed as system that doesn't deplenish the soil also.

[imacpwr]

Re: But is rice better than corn environmentally?

Read the article again..
They are NOT growing new fields of rice to produce bio-fuels (heck
they can't even produce enough rice to feed their own people)
rather they are going to be using the waste product of rice crops
(the hulls) to produce bio-fuel.

[quasarstrider]

Why corn?

Because there is lots of it planted in the USA already. The fact is, corn is not the best crop for producing ethanol by a long shot. Sugar cane and beets are.

[GGGlen]

Great

Just what we need, a bunch of rowdy cars.

[bobbydi]

Sake for aircraft in WWII- $10 gallon

$10 a gallon in the 1940s would be at least $100 a gallon today. Better just to have a laugh watching the Japanese men stagger down the street when they have been fueled by sake. Those are good times.