The Next Petroleum

A really good article at newsweek which talks about ethanol as the next petroleum.

A summary of the points I found interesting are
1. Brazil is producting ethanol at $25 a barrel compared to $40 a barrerl for europe

2. Southern countries growing sugar cane can get up to five times as much biofuel from each acre of land then other crops

3. Brazil and India could replace 10 percent of global gasoline fuel

4. China is developing the largest ethanol plant and is looking at cassava and sweet potato as a source for its ethanol

5. There is a new way of creating ethanol which is to use genetically engineered enzymes that can convert the cellulose to glucose to ethanol. Shell is investing heavily in creating a plant to produce ethanol using this method

6. United States alone could use these new technologies to replace 30 percent of its current gasoline consumption by 2030—without cutting into food production or greatly changing land use.