Alcohol process economics, grain

Processes and products developed to produce industrial materials from renewable resources have been too numerous to record here. For competitive reasons — supply of raw materials and technical and economic considerations — some of the products have varied widely in industrial use. Major U.S. industrial consumption of renewable resources have recently included oils and fats (animal and vegetable) industrial alcohol (wheat, corn, grain sorghum) fibers (cotton lint, flax, hides and skins) paper (forest products) isolated proteins (milk casein, animal glues, soybean, corn) turpentine and rosin (naval stores) and other chemicals (monosodiiim glutamate--wheat starch and dextrin—corn lactose—milk molasses and pulp residues --sugarcane and beet tannin lecithin pectin furfural). 

This is the most economical process to produce ethanol, but laws prohibit drinking synthetic ethanol so beverages are made much more expensively by fermentation of sugar or carbohydrates. Recent laws also mandate the addition of 10% ethanol in gasoline in cities during the winter, supposedly to reduce pollution. However, grain processors lobbied to require renewable resources so fermentation is required to produce this fuel alcohol. 

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