The other benefit for using a coal burning engine is that you can burn wood (as mentioned previously by Legbreaker), peat or even some forms of solid waste material like dried cow dung. Plus it isn't as likely to burst into flame when exposed to an ignition source.
There's also the advantage that it can be stacked in the open whereas any liquid by necessity must be stored in some sort of tank, typically sealed to prevent evaporation. Even if coal is wet, it can still be burnt (as long as a good fire is burning to help dry it out) but once ethanol gets too much water in it, it's almost useless.
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