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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Alcohol yield from various feedstocks

Posted by Krzysztof Lis on December 16, 2011

Below you will find a table representing 199+ proof (99,5%+) alcohol yield from various feedstocks. The values are both in US gallons per ton (2,000 lbs) or litres per metric tonne of feedstock. The numbers were obtained from calculation of the amount of fermentable substances contained in the feedstocks. As you can imagine, real values will be noticeably lower.

It doesn’t surprise that the best feedstock for ethanol production is the wheat, along with other grains, like corn and buckwheat. Raisins and prunes work great as they’re dried, and thus contain a lot of sugar per unit mass.

But I was surprised to learn that you can make more ethanol from onions or garlic, than from potatoes. If you have access to significant amounts of garlic or onion waste, you can produce a lot of alcohol fuel from it!

Feedstock gal. / ton liters / metric tonne
Wheat 85,0 354,7
Corn 84,0 350,5
Buckwheat 83,4 348,0
Raisins 81,4 339,7
Grain sorghum 79,5 331,7
Rice (rough) 79,5 331,7
Barley 79,2 330,5
Dates (dry) 79,0 329,6
Rye 78,8 328,8
Mesquite 76,0 317,1
Sago palms (fresh) 75,5 315,0
Prunes (dry) 72,0 300,4
Molasses (blackstrap) 70,4 293,8
Sorghum cane 70,4 293,8
Oats 63,6 265,4
Lichens (reindeer moss) 60,0 250,4
Figs (dry) 59,0 246,2
Marine algae (dry) 55,0 229,5
Cassava (U.S.) 54,8 228,7
Manure (dairy cattle) 40,0 166,9
Cassava (Brazil) 39,0 162,7
Sweet potatoes 34,2 142,7
Buffalo gourd 32,0 133,5
Plantains (Costa Rica) 29,6 123,5
Bananas 28,4 118,5
Yams 27,3 113,9
Chil peppers 27,2 113,5
Papayas 27,2 113,5
Jerusalem artichokes 27,0 112,7
Fodder beets 27,0 112,7
Mangos 27,0 112,7
Onions 24,2 101,0
Prickly pear 24,0 100,1
Garlic 23,1 96,4
Cattails (starch only) 23,0 96,0
Potatoes 22,9 95,6
Sugar beets 22,1 92,2
Forage crops ** 21,1 88,0
Nipa palms 21,1 88,0
Figs (fresh) 21,0 87,6
Oranges (whole) 21,0 87,6
Pineapples 15,6 65,1
Sugarcane 15,2 63,4
Grapes 15,1 63,0
Apples 14,4 60,1
Apricots 13,6 56,7
Pears 11,5 48,0
Peaches 11,5 48,0
Plums (nonprune) 10,9 45,5
Carrots 9,8 40,9
Comfrey ** 9,0 37,6
Whey (per 225 gallons) 6,7 28,0
Marine algae (wet) 6,0 25,0


This table was taken from the book “Alcohol can be a gas!” by David Blume, the best alcohol fuel encyclopedia ever!I suggest getting one, though I don’t think that ethanol produced on a large scale can be considered a petroleum alternative.

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