You are hearing things that are being said to you very wrongly..... It's not you, it's the enthusiastic folks out there....
Braxil is using sugar cane, which grows very very well in part of their country, and few other things do grow there so it is a perfect crop for them. It certainly outyields corn, but if you can't grow much sugarcane in your country you have to use what is available.
Switchgrass has fiberous sugars. They are worse than corn, which has starchy sugars, which is worse than sugarcane,which is sugar sugars.
Sugar gets turned into ethanol.
Starch needs an extra step to make sugar & then ethanol.
Fibers - like switchgrass or cornstalks or wood waste - takes several steps to break down the fiber, release the sugary items, and make fermentable sugars.
At this time, the fibers option shows great promise, but it actually loses energy. they hope & think they will perfect it in 4-10 years and get positive energy returns.
Corn they gain close to 1/3 energy over what is used to get the ethanol - this inculdes growing & hauling the crop.
Sugarcane I don't know the number, but returns something like 2 units of energy for every one used to make it.
So, switchgrass is just a working theory at this point in time. When we tried to land on the moon, we first had to get into orbit & find out if we could even do that much. Eventually we landed on the moon several times.
Switchgrass, we are just getting into orbit. Have a ways to go before we get to try landing on the moon......
Another issue with these fiberous crops it the HUGE volume of material we have to store & handle. Just unbelievable piles of grass, or cornstalks. Transporting, storing, and handling that much stuff is a serious issue that needs to be figured out.
One experiment in South Dakota involves collecting & using corncobs - another fibery source of sugar.
There are many theories out there, and I hope several of then work with more research. Currently, corn beats them all to heck for better performance in the real world.
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Today's Featured Article - Restoration Story: Fordson Major - by Anthony West. George bought his Fordson Major from a an implement sale about 18 years ago for £200.00 (UK). There is no known history regarding its origins or what service it had done, but the following work was undertaken alone to bring it up to show standard. From the engine number, it was found that this Major was produced late 1946. It was almost complete but had various parts that would definitely need replacing.
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