Sugar around the world →
Copyright © 2006 - 2009 Ethical Sugar
Site created with SPIP by
A. LE FLOCH
LACASSINE - "Ethanol could be the salvation of Louisiana agriculture," says Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Bob Odom. He and others are hoping the future begins here.
Plans to build an ethanol plant at the site of Lacassine Sugar Mill are under way with engineers from India visiting the plant last week for the first time to examine its operations.
The $56 million mill, built with state taxpayer money, is now owned by a partnership of area farmers and Andino Sugar Development, LLC, a company with headquarters in Colombia. They say they plan to put a plant to make ethanol from sugar syrup produced on the site by 2008. To understand why Odom and many in the industry hold out such hope for producing ethanol from sugar cane, it's necessary to understand the challenges facing south Louisiana farmers today.
The high cost of diesel fuel and fertilizer are driving some out of the business. Rice prices are at historic lows. After Hurricane Rita, farmers in Vermilion Parish have had to deal with saltwater intrusion onto their fields, making rice difficult to grow. The sugar industry isn't faring much better. Sugar prices have declined 20 percent in a year, and drought has reduced yields for the last four years.
This year's cane crop looked to be the best in years, but that was until a late freeze followed by drenching rains made harvesting difficult, according to Howard Cormier, LSU Ag Center county agent for Vermilion Parish.
"You cannot continue to pour dollars into ... an enterprise that has a low profit margin, and right now with sugar cane, that is the picture," he said.
At Lacassine, the mill produces syrup that is now shipped to other processing facilities for refining into sugar. The farmers save on transportation costs because syrup is cheaper to transport than raw cane.
But the mill doesn't see the syrup as its only product. The bagasse, which is the fiber left over after the cane is processed, is used to fuel the mill's boiler to generate steam. The steam is used to operate a turbine which produces electricity that can run the mill.
The mill produces more electricity than it needs, so it is selling the excess to Entergy, said mill manager Albert Katryan.
The goal is for the mill to be completely self-sufficient, he said.
"We make our own water," he said. "We evaporate water out of the juice when we make it into syrup."
Odom said this is the way all mills will have to operate in the future.
"I'm of the opinion they have to do electricity, fuel and food. ... They can't stay in business if they don't do that," he said.
Ethanol is a biofuel that can be produced from a number of agricultural products including corn. Brazil has embraced ethanol and is now the world leader in production. Its ethanol is produced from cane, as the Lacassine mill proposes to do, but most of the ethanol now being produced in the United States is made from corn.
In Brazil, cane is much cheaper than it is in the United States, said Ben Legendre, sugar specialist at the LSU AgCenter. Some have questioned whether a plant at Lacassine will be able to produce ethanol economically.
"With corn there seems to be competitive advantage, but corn prices are going up," he said.
In the future, ethanol could be produced from other plants and grasses, or biomass as it is called in the industry, even the "chicken trees" that grow in some parts of south Louisiana. But that technology is several years away.
Alex Santacoloma, president of Andino Sugar, said his company has done the numbers and the technology the company will bring to the ethanol plant will make it cost-effective to produce ethanol from cane in the United States. The technology is being used not only in Brazil but in places such as India and South Africa, he said.
"I think Louisiana has big potential for ethanol out of sugar and a huge potential out of cellulose in the future. The refiners are here ready to make the market," he said.
Cormier said he has heard agriculture experts talk about how ethanol has the potential to change the entire agriculture industry in Louisiana. Farmers who are now producing rice may decide to produce sugar if ethanol production makes it more profitable. Then the market for rice may improve as supply decreases. Sugar farmers, able to divert some of their product to fuel, could see prices go up for food uses.
"As farmers weigh their options there's at least hope they will have more options," he said.
But some of those are many years away, he admits.
"This is what is evolving as the big picture. In the short term, everyone's still struggling," he said.