Ethanol From Cellulose? Doesn't this Make a Lot More Sense than Ethanol From Food?

Question

Is There a Problem With Inserting the Gene(s) Into the Yeast?

Answer 1

Yes it does.  But unfortunately for Americans the AG lobbyist have considerable clot.  As you can tell they don't seem to mind if Americans pay more for food and gas.  

There are indeed many alternatives to using food based grain crops as bio-fuel.  Every year billions of tons of plant matter are destroyed or allowed to go to waste.

Answer 2

There is new field called synthetic biology that modify bacteria to make biofuel more efficient than traditional method.

There is description of synthetic biology and the companies using it to make biofuel here.

http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/mec...

http://www.brighthub.com/engineering/mec...

Answer 3

The have already found an organism that will convert the cellulose from simple plants to the necessary ethanol chain of molecules. There is extensive work being done on the use of sugar cane and pampas grass as well as a type of switchgrass from the central plains of the US. Considerable amounts of research have shown it can be profitable.

One firm says they are less than a year away from full ethanol production with a process that can use any kind of cellulose. So work is being done but it is a slow process since we are more than 40 years behind the times when you consider what Brazil has been doing.  

Answer 4

Yes, it makes a lot of sense. Celluose is the most abundant organic material on earth. The problem is that it is very difficult to release the glucose from cellulose. If scientists can figure an easy way to do it, cellulose will be a good source of energy.