Uganda scientists find ways to get ethanol from stems, leaves

The East African
By HALIMA ABDALLAH
Posted Monday, March 29 2010 at 00:00

Uganda scientists have made a breakthrough in extracting bio-ethanol from non-food parts of plants — cassava stems, cassava leaves, pineapple leaves, elephant grass stems and wood — opening the way for commercial production of ethanol from new source materials.

The announcement follows more than a year of research into the potential of non-food parts of plants and cellulosic materials in producing bio-ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol is difficult and expensive to break down into simple sugars required for ethanol production, but is eventually cheaper say the researchers who argue that the initial investment for biofuels is much lower than for fossil fuels.

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