Fuel ethanol from cane molasses in Thailand: Environmental and cost performance

In the context of the world's energy crisis and environmental concerns, crop-based ethanol has emerged as an energy alternative, the use of which can help reduce oil imports as well as emissions of CO₂ and other air pollutants. However, a clear disadvantage of ethanol is its high cost over gasoline under the current pricing scheme that does not include externalities. The intent of this study is to perform a life cycle analysis comparing environmental and cost performance of molasses-based E10 with those of CG. The results show that although E10 provides reduction in fossil energy use, petroleum use, CO₂ and NO_x emissions, its total social costs are higher than those of gasoline due to higher direct production costs and external costs for other air emissions, e.g. CH₄, N₂O, CO, SO₂, VOC and PM₁₀. An analysis of projection scenarios shows that technological innovations towards cleaner production help maximize ethanol's benefits whilst minimizing its limitations.