A Breakthrough in Biofuel

Researchers at Mascoma Corp in Lebanon are on the cutting edge when it comes to ethanol production. Ethanol can power cars with little impact on the environment.
Although using corn or sugar cane is the cheapest way to make ethanol. Its causing the world food supply to be depleted forcing food prices to go up. For this reason, scientists have shifted attention to non-edible plants like trees and grass.

Using non-edible plants was an expensive alternative-until now.
Lee Lynd, a professor at Dartmouth and co-founder of the Mascoma Corp, and other researchers at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering have discovered a cheaper way to produce ethanol from "woody plants" using a genetically modified bacterium.

"If your raw material was three times as expensive as oil that would be a big problem. But the fact that the raw material is-- I got to check because the price of oil is changing-- about 20 percent the price of oil, that gives you a lot of room to move in terms of lowering the processing costs," Lynd explained.

However, to cut emission levels people should drive less or by more efficient vehicles.

Lynd says there is more steps to be taken to advance this technology. But he speculates that large scale production could begin next year.

Source: WCAX News