Ethanol or ethanol fuel as it is sometimes called is the same as the alcoholic beverage and is most frequently used as a gasoline to power automobiles. It is fermented from agricultural products the most common of which are corn and sugarcane.

The advantages of ethanol are that the agricultural products used to generate ethanol are reproducible compared to fossil fuel. Also, the crops used for the production can be cultivated in many parts of the world, thereby reducing the world’s reliance on oil producing countries. Lastly, the combustion of ethanol itself is considered to be cleaner than natural gas itself.

However, in reality the ethanol production yield is not efficient and ethanol producers often purchase large orders of corn and sugarcane from farmers, driving up food prices in areas that were already economically deprived.

At present, the technology used for ethanol production is still being improved on and it is unlikely that large scale commercialization will be achieved in the near future.

Top ethanol producers in the world are the United States, Brazil, China, Thailand, Canada, India, Colombia and Australia. In particular, the two countries United States and Brazil together produced close to 90% of world’s ethanol output. Collectively, the European Union as a block would rank as the third largest producer of ethanol in the world.