Feedstock for bioethanol production is essentially composed of sugar cane (Fig. 4.7) or molasses (by-product of sugar mills) and sugar beet (Fig. 4.8) (UNCTAD, 2006). Two-third of the world sugar production is from sugar cane and one-third is from sugar beet. Sugar cane is grown in tropical and subtropical countries, while sugar beet is only grown in temperate climate countries.

While Brazil is the world’s largest producer, in European countries, Spain is the largest producer of bioethanol, and beet molasses are the most utilised sucrose — containing feedstock (Cardona and Sanchez, 2007). Sugar beet crops are grown in most of the European Union (EU) member states, providing 90% of the total EU demand of sugar. The advantages of sugar beet are a lower cycle of crop

production, higher yield and high tolerance of a wide range of climatic variations, low water and fertiliser requirement. Compared to sugar cane, sugar beet requires 35-40% less water and fertiliser (Balat et al., 2008).