Ethanol Production

• 1). Plant sufficient corn to provide the starch required for ethanol production. This is primarily cattle corn and not the sweet corn grown for human consumption.
  
  
• 2). Apply fertilizer to the soil and herbicides and pesticides as needed for a healthy crop.
  
  
• 3). Harvest the corn and send the corn byproduct to ethanol refineries for distillation.
  
  
• 4). Grow switchgrass on land that cannot economically produce corn. This native prairie grass is naturally resistant to disease and pests and requires little fertilizer.
  
  
• 5). Harvest the switchgrass and send it to an ethanol production facility equipped with cellulosic technology. This process, currently quite expensive, uses bacteria to convert the cellulose and lignin in switchgrass into starches that can be fermented by other bacteria to produce ethanol.
  
  

Engine Conversion

• 1). Produce engines that can run on a high percentage of ethanol in relation to gasoline. Current engines produced in the United States are designed to run on up to 10 percent ethanol mixed with 90 percent gasoline.
  
  
• 2). Study the example of Brazil in ethanol use. Brazil sells E20 and E25 fuels containing 20 percent and 25 percent ethanol and E100 fuel designed for flex fuel vehicles that run on 100 percent ethanol made from sugarcane.
  
  
• 3). Produce flex fuel ready vehicles in the United States that can run on 100 percent ethanol made from corn or cellulosic technology.
  
  
• 4). Develop new sources of ethanol such as those used in Sweden that produce ethanol from wood fiber derived from quick growth willow and other trees.