Ethanol, the Next Generation: Why Corn Is Out and Cellulose Is In

AOL Daily Finance
By CHRISTOPHER FAILLE
Posted 1:30 PM 02/02/11

Since the 1970s, the U.S. has subsidized ethanol produced from food crops, especially from corn, thus providing a homegrown, alternative fuel source for our automobiles. But for multiple reasons, from its environmental impacts to its effect on world food prices, the "first-generation" process of using corn to make fuel has drawn a lot of opposition in recent years.

So, entrepreneurs have focused on new, "second-generation" methods for making ethanol from such sources as wood chips, grasses, weeds or algae.

Read more