Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) has long been used as a fuel. One version of Henry Ford's Model T was designed to run on ethanol. Ethanol can be made from many different sources of starches or sugars. By far the greatest amount of ethanol worldwide is made from sugar cane.

Conversion of sugar cane to ethanol:

C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + H₂O --> 2C₆H₁₂O₆
sucrose + water --> dextrose

then...

C₆H₁₂O₆ --> 2C₂H₅OH + 2CO₂
dextrose --> ethanol + carbon dioxide