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The sugar industry's peak grower representative body, Canegrowers, has called for further research on the environmental advantages of using ethanol as a fuel additive. The need for more knowledge resulted from a Canegrower's workshop held in Brisbane on February 24, when it became apparent that more information concerning the effect of adding ethanol to petrol over the full lifecycle of the new blend was required. The workshop had been planned to review a previous study by the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO) on the lifecycle analysis of ethanol. Bernard Milford, Canegrowers' senior manager for policy, industry development, says that during the workshop it was obvious the knowledge of the effect of adding ethanol to petrol, when the full lifecycle of the new blend was taken into account, was incomplete. "Lifecycle analysis is a ‘cradle-to-the-grave' study of the total effects of producing products on the environment. It is a new and exciting field and the AGO commissioned a lifecycle analysis for renewable fuels. It was this analysis that was renewed at the workshop. "What the workshop showed was that there is still uncertainty and work to be done on the effect of ethanol as a fuel additive. "It was shown that adding ethanol to fuel had a positive value in relation to greenhouse gas reduction but because of the dilution effect with gasoline this value was not large. This is where more work is required." Milford says the federal government is encouraging the use of ethanol as a fuel blend as many people in the industry believe it to be a potentially viable use of sugarcane. "Although initially most ethanol would come from molasses, in the future fuel ethanol may provide a valuable alternative for growers if its production from cane can be made economic," he says.