The Economic Feasibility of Ethanol Production From Sugar in The United States

The Central American—Dominican Republic—United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTADR) focused the attention of many in the U.S. sugar industry on the feasibility of converting sugar into ethanol as a new market opportunity for sugar beet and sugarcane producers, as well as a means to help support sugar prices received by producers by reducing the supply of sugar for food use in the domestic market.

The purpose of this report is to investigate the feasibility of producing ethanol from sugar feedstocks in the United States. In the production of ethanol from sugar, five potential feedstocks are examined in this report. These feedstocks include: (1) sugarcane juice, (2) sugar beet juice, (3) cane/beet molasses, (4) raw sugar, and (5) refined sugar. Estimated costs of producing ethanol from these feedstocks are presented along with a discussion of future technologies that may have the potential of reducing the cost of converting sugar feedstocks into ethanol. Comparisons of the cost of producing ethanol from sugar feedstocks are made with grain feedstocks, primarily corn.
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