>> NARRATOR: It was so valued, it helped turn the tide in the American Revolution... Napoleon knew his fortunes would sour without it... From fields of cane to acres of beets, it's processed into a multi-billion-dollar wonder. It not only satisfies the world's sweet tooth, but, one day, might even replace our dependence on oil. Now: "Sugar," on<i> Modern Marvels.</i> <font color="#FFFF00"> Captioning sponsored by</font> <font color="#FFFF00"> A&E TELEVISION NETWORKS</font> (<i> slurping, smacking</i> ) >> NARRATOR: Today, the average American consumes 43 pounds a year. Down Under... Australians eat 65 pounds each. Sugar is produced in 121 countries, and annual production is over 150 million tons. Like oil or grain, sugar is one of a handful of substances that makes the world go round. >> STEVE KAFFKA: We certainly have a sweet tooth. Sugar is a source of pleasure. It takes an enormous amount of effort to produce, and we're willing to spend that to maintain that pleasure in our lives. >> NARRATOR: For thousands of years, the Hawaiian Islands have been home to one of the world's most treasured goods. Here in Maui, the environment for growing sugar is ideal. >> G. STEPHEN HOLADAY: Sugarcane is a tropical grass, so it's going to yield best in a tropical environment. We're at about 20 degrees north on the globe, so it's an optimum place to grow sugarcane. >> NARRATOR: Endlessly renewable, sugarcane is grown by planting clones, not seeds. (<i> whirring, clanking</i> ) >> HOLADAY: We cut the existing adult plant into pieces, very similar to a potato. This is the eye of the sugarcane plant, and this new plant will grow out of this eye. >> NARRATOR: In most areas, sugarcane is grown and harvested on an annual rotation. But in Hawaii, the hybrid cane they've developed takes two years to fully mature. That results in high sugar content, and distinctive stalks that reach as high as 30 feet. At two years, the crops have reached their maximum sugar saturation. (<i> flames crackling</i> ) They are then burned for a few minutes to remove dead leaves and a waxy coating. The fires are quickly extinguished, so that the cane and its sugar contents remain unharmed. The rich soil, abundant sun and water, and two-year growth cycle, produce weighty stalks of 120 tons per acre. >> FELIX HUBINGER: We harvest this cane by pushing it into windrows, and then load it into 60-ton cane haulers, which then deliver it to the factory. >> NARRATOR: Every ten pounds of stalks harvested will eventually result in one to one-and-a-half pounds of raw sugar. The HC & S factory has been processing Hawaiian sugarcane since 1903, and now produces over 200,000 tons of sugar every year. As the sugarcane enters the factory, the first part of the process is a cleanup operation. Soil, rocks, pebbles and other debris will be washed out in what's called a density bath. The clean stalks are chopped into fine pieces by serrated, rotating knives. The pieces then make four passes through a hammer mill, where a series of large rollers crush them even finer, separating liquid from fiber. Eventually, 95% of the available sugar is pressed from the fiber. The pressed juice receives an infusion of lime. >> RANDY TAMAYE: We want to clarify the juice by getting the suspended solids to settle out, and the calcium part of the lime helps us to do that. >> NARRATOR: When the calcium bonds to phosphates in the juice, a gel called calcium phosphate is formed. While the sugar is suspended in solution and unaffected, heavy non-sugar particles will adhere to the gel and drop to the bottom of the tank. The remaining clear juice must still be concentrated. It's boiled five separate times in an evaporator, to remove water from the sugar solution. Chemically known as sucrose, the sugar now consists of a thick, super-saturated syrup, and is ready to form crystals. >> TAMAYE: We do crystallization here by adding finely-divided sucrose crystals, about five microns in diameter. The sucrose will deposit on the surface of that small crystal, and let that crystal grow in size as more sucrose deposits. >> NARRATOR: Finally, the mixture is spun in centrifuges and 1,200 revolutions per minute. During this process, a thick liquid byproduct, known as molasses, is thrown off. Depending on the grade of molasses, it can be sold as food, cattle feed or as a fermentation source for the rum industry. The crystals that remain are sugar, which will wind up in your coffee or on your kitchen table. Cane extraction has changed little for decades. But advances in technology have increased factory efficiency. The biggest change has been the automation of the entire process. >> TAMAYE: We monitor each machinery with sensors to tell the operator what's going on every moment of the operation, and he can follow it off of computer screens. >> NARRATOR: 3,000 miles from Hawaii, in northern California, sugar is also being grown and processed-- only here, it's coming from sugar beets. Today, sugar beets account for 35 million metric tons of sugar produced each year-- one-quarter of global sugar production. While sugar beets and sugarcane are processed differently, the final product is virtually identical, except for varying trace minerals. >> KAFFKA: There really is no difference in the sugar from either plant species. The growing of the crop and its extraction are, initially, quite different, but afterwards, the refining process ends up with the same product. >> NARRATOR: Whereas sugarcane requires tropical weather, sugar beets flourish in the cooler climates of Europe, Asia and North America. In California's Merced County, farmers grow sugar beets year- round. >> DAVID FARMER: We have about 1,700-1,800 acres of usable soil to farm these sugar beets on. We run about a four-year rotation. We start with tillage, land planing, prepping the soil. We put on fertilizer and a herbicide for weeds; plant the seed. Seed comes in a form like this-- it's kind of a... it's a special seed. The seed is developed by a company, scientifically, for maximum yield, disease resistance, and also, the highest sugar contents possible. >> NARRATOR: A year after planting, the beets are ready for harvest. First, a topper uses steel flails to cut them down to their crowns. Rubber flails immediately follow, knocking the leaf canopy away. >> FARMER: You make several adjustments to your harvester to eliminate any dirt that you can; 'cause the more dirt you ship slows the factory down-- it causes problems over there. Plus, it costs a grower money to ship dirt. >> NARRATOR: Once the leaves are removed, the crop must be collected as soon as possible-- usually, within a day. Unless frozen, the beets will remain alive after they're picked and, every hour, will consume more of their precious sucros Harvesting machines use sets of pinch wheels to dig underneath the roots, lifting them from the ground and onto a bed of cleaning rollers. They are then loaded directly onto a tractor-trailer, ready for transport. >> FARMER: What's fun about growing sugar beets is this thing starts with that little seed that we showed earlier, and it grows into about a three- or four-pound beet in about eight to ten months. And this beet is not edible. It has to go through a process to make sugar. >> NARRATOR: In this case, that's the job of the Spreckels Sugar Factory, in Mendota, California, just a few miles from the beet fields. The factory receives these beets the same day they're harvested. The roots are still alive, so the beets must be processed within 48 hours, before they burn up the sugar stored within them. >> BOB STAFFORD: This factory processes 800,000 tons of beets each year, yielding 200 million pounds of sugar. The process begins with a truckload of beets, approximately 25 tons. Each load is dumped into a hopper and conveyed to a storage pile to be processed during that day. >> NARRATOR: The beets fall into a series of flumes. Rotating waterwheels remove dirt and rocks, while simultaneously floating the roots to the slicing center. >> KAFFKA: They pass through a series of high-speed knives that cut them into what are called cossettes, which are thin slices. >> NARRATOR: The thin slices of beets travel in a water bath, where they're pressed and boiled in order to extract a sugar-rich liquid. From here, the process is virtually the same as that used to extract sugar from sugar cane. After going through the centrifuge, the remaining sugar crystals are dried in rotating drums called granulators. But there's still more sugar to be yielded. The residual liquid from the centrifuge process is molasses, stored in 5,000-ton tanks. Recently, scientists developed a chemical process that extracts even more sugar from the molasses. >> STAFFORD: One of the most significant innovations we did was back in 1995. We installed an ion-exclusion process, which extracted additional sugar from molasses. This improved our yield by 25%. >> NARRATOR: In the ion exclusion process, a resin is added to the molasses, which then coagulates and forms a glob resembling a ball of yarn in the tank. The leftover sugar in the molasses enters this web, and the molasses, because of its particular ion characteristics, is excluded-- hence, the name "ion exclusion." The extra sugar from this process joins the rest of the sugar in the factory line. >> STAFFORD: Then it passes over screens and goes to our storage silos. From the storage silos, it is either packaged in 50-pound bags or loaded directly into trucks. >> NARRATOR: Those bags may end up anywhere on earth. Sugar has become a global economic powerhouse... but not until it rose from delicious curiosity to treasure worth fighting for. "Sugar" will return, on<i> Modern</i> <i> Marvels.</i> From field... to factory, the process of growing and producing table sugar is so cost- effective that the average American can pay for a pound of sugar with only a few minutes of work. That's a far cry from ancient times, when sweeteners were rare and precious commodities. >> KAFFKA: We take sweeteners and sugar for granted. It's so common. But that wasn't always the case. Prior to the widespread availability of sugar and other sweeteners, people got sweet things primarily from honey-- from bees-- or from fruits. >> STEPHANIE WHALEN: We all have specific cells in our mouth that respond to sweetness. And to be able to experience that was a luxury when it wasn't readily available. >> NARRATOR: The origins of cultivating plants for their sucrose are murky. The practice probably began in New Guinea and followed a western path into Asia, India and the Middle East. The ancient Chinese developed a technology to extract cane juice, using two rotating stone mills. Egyptians discovered that adding lime could remove impurities from the juice. For centuries sugar was a secret of the East. Then, in the 11th century, it was discovered by Western Europeans as a result of the Crusades. By the 12th century sugar was worth its weight in gold. A pound of sugar was so expensive that one Venetian trader reportedly sold 50 tons for the modern day equivalent of $10 million. But sugar's true destiny as an economic powerhouse lay in the New World. >> PAUL CASE: Much as oil drives the economy today globally, sugar and spices drove the economies in the 16th and 17th centuries. >> WHALEN: As Europe developed a taste for sugar, and their explorers were going out throughout the world, they also moved the sugar crop. And Christopher Columbus did take this to the Caribbean. >> NARRATOR: Columbus's mother- in-law had a sugar cane plantation and gave him cane cuttings to take with him. Thus, Columbus planted not only a flag, but an industry in the New World. Europeans found the Caribbean ideal for cultivating sugar. By the 1700s, thousands of flourishing plantations and factories produced the bulk of the world's sugar on the Caribbean islands. >> CASE: Sugar was an incredibly valuable commodity in the New World. And so, wherever it grew-- whether or not it was Brazil or the Caribbean, or elsewhere in the tropics-- this product was grown for export to Europe. >> NARRATOR: As the trade boomed, an accidental recipe would give the world a new drink, and expand the sugar industry. >> CASE: Someone one day in Barbados in the 1600s ended up having wild yeast blow into some diluted molasses, and it produced a beer. That beer was ultimately enjoyed by the local people. And ultimately someone decided to distill it and created a product that was known locally as "rum bullion," because it made people rambunctious, and that was shortened to the word "rum" eventually. >> NARRATOR: Rum became the grog of choice for the British navy. British sailors roamed the seas, and spread word of their favorite drink to the entire world. Rum was actually part of their daily rations until 1970. The increase in demand for sugar and rum sparked a growing need for slaves. Caribbean plantation owners oversaw a huge work force of newly-imported slave laborers, shipped from Africa to work the fields in the New World. Molasses was sent to New England to make rum. The rum was then sent to Africa, where it was traded for more slaves. This sugar triangle was a subset of what historians call triangular trade. By the mid-1700s, sugar had replaced tobacco as the New World's most profitable export. Sugar, and its by-product rum, even played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. >> Fire! In addition to the tea tax, Britain imposed a molasses tax and a sugar tax, which infuriated the colonists, and embittered relations with the mother country. Eventually, there was war. Eight long years of it. Britain, like so many countries in Europe, was wild about sugar and keen on pursuing it. Finally Britain shifted its focus to battling America's ally, France, for the domination of the West Indies sugar trade. Eventually America gained its independence when Britain backed off the colonies to concentrate on its fight over sugar. The 18th century had seen Caribbean sugar expand into a huge business. In the 19th century, Hawaiian growers were independently developing a much smaller and very different sugar industry. In Hawaii, natives brought sugar plants from other Polynesian islands and began their own production. >> WHALEN: In the Caribbean, the Europeans came there to essentially exploit the area and bring everything back to their countries. Whereas in Hawaii, what happened was Americans came here to settle. And they reinvested into the economy, and the money stayed here. >> NARRATOR: Long before tourism exploded, sugar cane was the bedrock of the Hawaiian economy. But globally, sugar cane had a rival. For thousands of years, sugar cane was the only plant that could produce sucrose in large quantities. But in the 18th century, two German chemists discovered that the beet root was also filled with sugar, ripe for the taking. Andreas Marggraf used a water- based extraction process to extract sugar from beets. His breakthrough inspired fellow German Franz Karl Achard to improve the process. He used alcohol, which resulted in much greater yields of sugar. In 1801 Achard opened the world's first sugar beet factory in Lower Silesia-- part of present-day Poland. Just a decade later, Napoleon's epic quest to control Europe would seal the destiny of the lowly beet root. >> KAFFKA: Sugar was certainly part of warfare during the Napoleonic era. The British were able to effectively blockade France and cut off the trade in sugar from the West Indies. The French were willing to tolerate a great deal during the Naploeonic era, but they apparently were not willing to tolerate a lack of sugar. >> NARRATOR: In 1811, Napoleon ordered 40 sugar beet factories to be constructed. They were so successful that soon the new product spread across Europe. By the mid-19th century, innovations were boosting output even further. In 1843, Norbert Rillieux of Louisiana revolutionized sugar processing. Rillieux devised a steam heater that evaporated water under controlled, repeatable conditions, producing far drier and purer sugar crystals. His innovation was quickly followed by improved farming techniques. >> KAFFKA: Starting in about 1850, a planter was invented that could plant sugar beet seeds in a row. So all of a sudden, half the seed was needed. Less seed was needed because you could put it in rows. And once you could put it in rows, you could begin to use horse-drawn implements to cultivate between the rows. And so that labor of weeding could be reduced. >> NARRATOR: Today, manual labor has been all but eliminated, further reducing costs. It's a good thing, because sugar now has thousands of different applications. "Sugar" will return on<i> Modern</i> <i> Marvels.</i> Sugar is most commonly seen as a key ingredient in baking... sweetening the cakes and pastries we crave and giving flavor to processed foods. >> ANDY BRISCOE: Once you get beyond baking, you look at the preservative aspect of sugar used in jams. You also have candy. You have beverages that it's used in. You have ice cream that it's used in. Sugar provides a little bit of a crispiness in most cereals when you add milk, and it maintains that crispiness. >> KAFFKA: The sugar that is standard of trade is pure white, crystalline sugar. It's highly uniform, whether it's from beet sources or from cane sources. It's reliably the same in terms of its sweetening capacity and in terms of its baking properties. >> NARRATOR: Contrary to popular perception, white sugar is an all-natural product. >> BRISCOE: There's raw sugar, and then there's white sugar. White sugar is basically taking raw sugar and spinning it sort of like in a washing machine, where you spin the water out of clothes. You basically spin the molasses out of raw sugar to create a white sugar crystal. >> NARRATOR: Only ten to 15% of sugar consumption is the sugar we sprinkle into our coffee or tea, or over our cereal. The remaining 85% to 90% comes from the industrial production of food and drinks. Even processed fruits and vegetables contain significant amounts of sugar. When crystallized sugar is dried in a centrifuge, the byproduct is molasses, itself an ingredient in several types of sugar. Brown sugar and sugar in the raw share some similarities, as each contains white sugar combined with five to 15% molasses. Cubed sugar is a convenient form for sweetening hot beverages. >> TAMAYE: Cubed sugar is made by a machine that takes fine grains of white refined sugar. It's misted with steam or hot water, which causes the crystals to fuse. And then it's formed up as a cube in a mold or in a press. >> NARRATOR: Confectioner's sugar is simply sugar that has been ground into a fine powder. It's a favorite for adding on top of baked goods and donuts. Hard candies are created by boiling sugar until the solution forms a non-crystalline glass structure. Adding a small amount of corn syrup makes the candy strong enough to maintain its shape. The sugar industry is constantly looking to new applications, and now sugar is increasingly used in cosmetics. >> BRISCOE: We have body polish, we have body scrub, we have an exfoliant. Most ladies certainly want to maintain a vibrant and young and youthful look, and when you can do that, actually, new cells, uh, skin cells are produced. But the sugar basically helps to act as an abrasive and certainly slough off those dead skin cells. >> NARRATOR: But for all of sugar's many uses, one of the most popular is as the source material for rum. While any type of sugar syrup can be fermented, molasses is the usual source for rum. Sugar and molasses are separated in a centrifuge by three successive passes, or strikes. >> CASE: A-molasses is the first-strike molasses, and that molasses has the highest sugar content and the least byproducts in the molasses. C-molasses has the most byproducts in it, so the molasses has a completely different flavor. >> NARRATOR: Part of rum's unique flavor derives from the surprising amount of sugar contained in its source. >> CASE: When we get the molasses, the A-molasses looks like this. It's a thick, viscous liquid that weighs 12 pounds per gallon. Ten of those pounds are sugar. >> NARRATOR: Finer rums are made from A-grade molasses, but all rums go through the same process of fermentation. >> CASE: You take the raw molasses, you dilute it in these tanks. We use these tanks as our fermenters. And we put in 50 gallons of molasses, add 200 gallons of water, and then we add yeast to the mixture. >> NARRATOR: During the fermentation process, the yeast consumes the sugar in the molasses. In doing so, it breaks down the sucrose and glucose molecules into smaller alcohol molecules. Carbon dioxide is released as a byproduct. >> CASE: And two days later, voilà, the yeast have turned the sugar in the molasses into an alcohol beer of approximately 12% alcohol. >> NARRATOR: Distilling boosts the beer-strength mixture to its full power of approximately 80-proof alcohol. Places like the Caribbean, that produce the best molasses, are generally also home to the world's finer rums. Rum has recently grown in popularity and is one of the most important parts of the sugar business. But for nonalcoholic soft drinks, there's a formidable challenger to sugar's dominance. High-fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, is so prevalent that every American consumes 65 pounds of it a year. While table sugar, chemically known as sucrose, is extracted from cane and beets through a mechanical process, HFCS is the result of a complex biochemical process. It's produced by adding to cornstarch a series of enzymes that convert the starch first into glucose and then into fructose, which are types of sugars. >> KAFFKA: High-fructose corn syrup is made from corn grain. Very large areas of the Midwest United States is devoted particularly to that crop. So it's abundant in supply and low in cost. >> NARRATOR: Since the 1980s, major soft drink manufacturers have cut costs by switching from sugar to HFCS. So far, Americans have been most accepting of the new taste. >> BRISCOE: The United States is the major country that high-fructose corn syrup has been used by the soft drink industry. If you go into Mexico, you immediately notice the difference in taste of soft drinks, because they do use all- natural sugar. >> NARRATOR: There are two battles currently being waged in the world of sugar. In the U.S., the sugar industry continues to face the challenge posed by HFCS. But in Brazil, sugar-based ethanol is poised to strike a knockout punch on the oil industry. "Sugar" will return on<i> Modern</i> <i> Marvels.</i> In the last few decades, science has looked beyond sugar's traditional uses and has been perfecting a far more potent use of this product. Catching the industrialized world off guard, this new technology hasn't been fully utilized by the U.S., Japan or Europe. It springs from a nation where the per-capita income is just $2,700 per year. By taking bold and visionary steps, Brazil has vastly reduced its dependency on oil, and is on the verge of becoming energy self-sufficient. >> ALEXANDRE AIDAR, JR.: It's a big commitment toward the renewable energy sourcing and the future of our environment. That's the lesson. >> NARRATOR: Brazil converts sugar into the alternative motor fuel ethanol, which is 90% alcohol. As the world leader in sugar production, Brazil grows sugar on 15 million acres, double the area of just 20 years ago. Farmers have to keep up with demand. Almost half of all new cars today run on mixtures that include some ethanol. In 1973, Brazil and other oil importing nations faced the shock of the first oil embargo declared by Middle East suppliers. Spurred by the crisis, Europe and the United States inched toward energy alternatives, but Brazil blazed full speed ahead. >> AIDAR: So many developments happened since '73 to today. I think it was one of the most impressive R&D programs, with practical results, ever done by humankind. >> DOCUMENTARY NARRATOR: Created in 1909, the Model T Ford became the motivation for one of the great technological advances... >> NARRATOR: The idea of using ethanol for motor fuel has existed since the early 1900s. >> DOCUMENTARY NARRATOR: ...had to be found to build them faster. >> NARRATOR: Henry Ford originally planned to run his Model T on biofuels before turning to cheap and plentiful gasoline. >> DOCUMENTARY NARRATOR: The assembly line... >> NARRATOR: But Ford sensed that ethanol's time would come, proclaiming it "the fuel of the future." For Brazil, that prediction became reality. >> AIDAR: We believe, for the 21st century, that the petroleum model used on the 20th century has to change. >> NARRATOR: Brazil has been growing sugarcane since shortly after the Portuguese arrived in 1503, so it has vast experience. To produce energy-rich ethanol, which Brazilians simply call alcohol, stalks are processed and purified like any other sugarcane. But after the sucrose juice has been extracted, the factory line sends it in two different directions. One continues in the traditional path, ultimately winding up as sugar crystals. But in the second path, the liquid ferments for six hours. >> MONICA ALBERS: The juice goes to the fermentation tanks. Then we throw more or less 70% juice and the other 30% yeast. This yeast will transform the sucrose from the juice into ethanol. >> AIDAR: The ethanol process is just a slight variation of the rum process. It's based on fermentation and distillation. >> NARRATOR: This single factory can process 900,000 liters of ethanol each day-- enough to fill up 20,000 car tanks. Brazil produces 35% of the world's ethanol-- five times more than the United States. In the U.S., ethanol blends account for 30% of all motor fuels. While most U.S. ethanol is made from corn, Brazil's output is entirely sugar-based. In conjunction with automakers, Brazil has also encouraged the development of "flex-fuel" cars-- vehicles able to run on ethanol, gasoline or any mixture of the two. As fuel is burned in a flex-fuel engine, an oxygen sensor measures oxygen content, which reveals the composition of the fuel. For each fuel mixture, there are specific injector and spark settings to maximize performance. >> HENRIQUE PEREIRA: Once the sensor recognizes that a new fuel is coming in, the controller of the engine, which has a small computer, will process all the information to the engine and will regulate the engine to the new mixture that is coming in. >> NARRATOR: General Motors' 1.8 liter engine control module adjusts to the fuel mixture in real time, with a maximum output of 109 horsepower on straight ethanol and 105 horsepower on gasoline. The engine is the heart of GM's Corsa Flexpower subcompact, the company's flagship vehicle in this category. It's one of many flex-fuel cars available for Brazilian drivers. Numerous car manufacturers have been setting up plants here, eager to build the next generation of vehicles, all because of the energy contained in sugar. Brazilian motorists embracing this technology have no problem finding alcohol to fill their tanks. >> PEREIRA: In Brazil, we have the distribution. We have alcohol in every gas station, by a law from the '80s, that every gas station in Brazil should have all the fuels-- gasoline, alcohol and diesel. >> NARRATOR: As for the environmental impact, car engines pollute whether they run on gas or ethanol. With gasoline, the main culprits are carbon monoxide and dioxide. With ethanol, it's nitrogen oxide. An environmental benefit comes from the fact that producing biofuels is a far cleaner procedure than refining oil. Also, a car burning 100% sugar-derived ethanol generates the same amount of carbon dioxide as would have been released by the sugar plants as they decayed. Thus, to environmentalists, the process is considered "carbon neutral." Even the major oil companies have adapted to the new realities of the Brazilian energy market. >> AIDAR: We are happy to see big names like the oil companies jumping into the program and helping, 'cause we need their logistics, we need their distribution force. >> NARRATOR: In recent years, the average cost of filling up at a Sao Paulo gas station has dropped from 40 U.S. dollars for a tank of gasoline to less than half of that for a tank of ethanol. >> And it's cheaper to me. >> NARRATOR: Ethanol, which has a higher boiling point than motor fuel, becomes less combustible in cold weather, so most flex-fuel cars have added a small extra tank to hold just gasoline. Drivers can thus use gasoline to get going on chilly mornings and, afterwards, run on ethanol once the engine is warmed up. Western countries are now taking a fresh look at ethanol, seeking their share of the "Brazilian energy miracle." The U.S. Congress' 2005 energy bill mandates doubling ethanol production by 2112. But this is a far cry from Brazil's track record. >> BRISCOE: They've gone from roughly an 80% dependency on foreign oil to roughly a ten to 15% dependency. We think the use of sugar in the future is obviously going to be an important component of renewable fuels for the United States. >> PEREIRA: Flex-fuel is here to stay. Our cars, from now on, every new development is flex. We see that 100% of our production will be flex cars, and it's growing very fast. >> AIDAR: And I believe, in the United States, with the highest education standard in the population, it should be even easier than here. >> NARRATOR: Brazil has clearly shown the world how the sugar industry can make a positive contribution to a nation's energy needs. In another part of the world, Hawaiian sugar producers have been providing electrical power for nearly 100 years. "Sugar" will return on<i> Modern</i> <i> Marvels</i> here on the History Channel. Brazil's use of ethanol to power cars has fundamentally changed the economy and future prospects of that country. In Hawaii, sugar used to create a different kind of energy has played a critical role for the past century. Today, factories like this one, run by the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company, generate their own power. When shredded cane is crushed by rollers to extract sucrose, the remaining fiber, known as bagasse, acts as a source of power. >> HUBINGER: The bagasse, which is the fibrous residue from the cane plant, becomes our main fuel for generating steam and electricity for operating our factory, as well as our irrigation systems on the farm. >> NARRATOR: The bagasse is burned in boilers, creating two types of energy. >> TAMAYE: Cogeneration is a system where we first generate steam in a boiler to provide energy to the process. But before we use the steam, we also use it to generate electricity, so we have two forms of energy available. >> NARRATOR: Each year, more than 600,000 tons of bagasse are burned here, providing more energy than the factory can use. HC&S generates 30 megawatts, and exports 12 megawatts to the local utility company, Maui Electric, supplying seven percent of Maui's electricity. At one time, the sugar company provided for all of Maui's electricity needs. >> STAN KIYONAGA: The relationship really began a long time ago, when Maui Electric, as we know it, was formed back in 1921. At that time, essentially Maui Electric was an electrical distribution company, with all of the electricity coming from HC&S. >> NARRATOR: During the dark days of the Depression and World War II, with demand for electricity soaring, HC&S kept Maui running. >> KIYONAGA: Pearl Harbor, World War II-- that increased the demand for electricity on the island. And at that point, all of the electricity really came from the sugar plantation. >> NARRATOR: With today's uncertainty surrounding oil-based fuels, Hawaiian sugar growers are poised to extract still more energy from the sugarcane. But the Hawaiian sugar industry isn't stopping with energy. Scientists are researching the next frontier in sugar-based products. They envision a future where sugar is used to produce pharmaceuticals. >> WHALEN: Pharmaceuticals are extremely costly. We already know that the production process in the field is much cheaper than the production process in a factory. >> NARRATOR: Experiments are being conducted in which human DNA is injected into sugarcane. The plant then acts as a host, and can actually grow human protein. >> WHALEN: It is also safer, because what they do now is use animal cells that can carry viruses in creating these proteins that are new medicines, whereas any plant virus will not carry over to people. Therefore, it is a safer mechanism, so we're very excited about the potential. >> NARRATOR: Sugar, which for so long has given pleasure to humans, may hold a key to extending human life. >> WHALEN: We feel we have a very viable option for the Hawaiian sugar industry. It's going to take decades, just like all research does, but we're starting the process now. >> NARRATOR: In its long history, sugar has demonstrated its power, playing a role in everything from war and slavery to tooth decay and obesity. As a food, it has provided pleasure and energy to humankind. As a resource, it has provided power, lighting up our cities and supplying fuel to a growing number of cars. While oil may have been the driving force of the 20th century, there are many who believe that sugar will sweeten our options in the 21st.
This video curiously omits the role of sugar in the history of Cuba.