New Promise For Ethanol

From the San Jose Mercury News:

"It may seem hard to believe that microscopic bugs usually viewed as destructive pests can be so productive. But scientists and several companies are working with the creatures to convert wood, corn stalks and other plant waste into sugars that are easily brewed into ethanol -- essentially 199-proof moonshine that can be used to power automobiles.

Thanks to biotechnology breakthroughs, supporters of alternative energy sources say that after decades of unfulfilled promise and billions in government corn subsidies, energy companies may be able to produce ethanol easily and inexpensively.

``The process is like making grain alcohol, or brewing beer, but on a much bigger scale,'' said Nathanael Greene, an analyst with the environmental non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council. ``The technologies are out there to do this, but we need to convince the public this is real and not just a science project.''

Using microbes may even solve a growing dilemma over the current ethanol manufacturing process, which relies almost exclusively on corn kernels and yielded only 4 billion gallons of ethanol last year (compared to the 140 billion gallons of gasoline used in the United States). There's growing concern throughout the Midwestern corn belt that the 95 U.S. ethanol plants are increasingly poaching corn meant for livestock feed.

The idea mentioned by Bush during his State of the Union speech -- called ``cellulosic ethanol'' -- skirts that problem because it makes fuel from farm waste such as straw, corn stalks and other inedible agricultural leftovers. Cellulose is the woody stuff found in branches and stems that makes plants hard.

Breaking cellulose into sugar to spin straw into ethanol has been studied for at least 50 years. But the technological hurdles and costs have been so daunting that most ethanol producers have relied on heavy government subsidies to squeeze fuel from corn.

Researchers are now exploring various ways to exploit microbes, the one-celled creatures that serve as the first link of life's food chain. One company uses the microbe itself to make ethanol. Others are taking the genes that make the waste-to-fuel enzymes and splicing them into common bacteria. What's more, a new breed of ``synthetic biologists'' is trying to produce the necessary enzymes by creating entirely new life forms by manipulating DNA."