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The entry titled "BIOTECH: Corn just the beginning of biofuels," and any of the comments about it.
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BIOTECH: Corn just the beginning of biofuels
Live from the international BIO botech industry conference in San Diego
Biotech companies want you to think beyond corn in your gas tank.
Yea, maybe corn wasn’t the best crop to make ethanol from after all, they’re beginning to acknowledge. Maybe it does reduce food supplies. Maybe the process of making gas from fuel does take more energy than it produces. And maybe - especially with corn king Iowa under water - there’s other ways to get fuel so we all can keep driving our cars and SUVS.
During a session at the annual BIO industry conference here, a panel of biofuel companies showed off what they’re working on. A sampling:
*Verenium, a Massachusetts company, is working on developing new enzymes that can digest agricultural waste and other biomass products and turn them into sugars. For clues, the company is researching how animals digest plants and turn them into sugar for energy.
*Ceres, a California company, is developing new types of “energy crops” and seeds designed specifically for biofuels. Corn isn’t one of them, but miscanthus - a type of Asian switchgrass - sorghum and what it calls “Energycane” - a type of sugarcane are.
*LS9 Inc., also of California, wants to make petroleum from, well, petroleum. The “renewable petroleum” company is working on a technology that uses fermentation - think beer or other products - to make what it calls “designer biofuels.” Sure you still have to use oil to make this stuff, but just not as much of it.
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