The possibility of bioethanol production from autumn sugar beet

Ethanol is a clean and renewable energy source. The necessity of ethanol usage, instead of fossil fuels or mixed with them, in order to reduce environmental pollution resulted in increase of ethanol production from 50 million m-3 in 2007 to 85 million m-3 in 2012. The present study aimed to compare the cost of bio-ethanol production from sugar beet with other agricultural crops, and also economical comparison of sugar beet production in spring and autumn seasons, and finally, to estimate the required capital for constructing industrial unit for bio-ethanol production. Studies showed that the average cost of producing 2.3-3.3 m-3 ha-1bio-ethanol from one hectare spring and autumn sugar beet fields with average yield of 37 and 48 t ha-1 and 17.5 and 13.3% sugar content is 92 and 89 million Rials, respectively. With the implementation of research recommendations in autumn sugar beet production and increasing sugar content, the bio-ethanol production may increase to 5.4 m-3 ha-1. In addition, using dried pulp, bio-ethanol production efficiency can be increased to 0.25 m-3 t-1 of dried pulp. To produce about 76000 m-3 ethanol per year (with the assumption of producing 90 liters ethanol from 1000 kg sugar beet with sugar content of 15%), about 1100 tons sugar beet is needed. In conclusion, with activation of autumn sugar beet planting for bio-ethanol production, not only air pollution will be reduced but also a good source of income for growers and dependent industries will be provided.