Ethanol company claims breakthrough in making fuel from plant waste

USA Today
July 23, 2009


Ethanol hasn't exactly taken off as a fuel. The E85 movement, pushed by General Motors and other Detroit automakers, still has its critics because its production is heavily subsidized. Also, most ethanol is made out of corn, thus fuel competes with food.

But one ethanol company says it thinks it has achieved a research breakthrough. Using its own combination of microbes to break down plant material, Qteros, formerly SunEthanol, says it can make 100 gallons of ethanol out of a ton of corn stalks and other waste biomass. A year ago, the best the company could manage was about a fifth of that.

Read the full story