Speaking of Biofuels...

In yesterday's Globe and Mail, Megawheels writer Michael Vaughan wrote about "Greening Our Vehicles" through the use of Ethanol.

For those of you (well, ...me and a few others) who have a hard time discussing this process with folks we meet, this will help. Here is a teaser from the article:

"...who would object if we produced the vast quantities of ethanol we need from good, old garbage?
That’s the promise of cellulosic ethanol. Cellulose is the non-food carbohydrate that forms the cell wall in most plants – trees, grass, corn, whatever. What an endless source of the stuff we have in our garbage stream.
Once you take out the recyclables – mostly metals – you’ve got cellulose aplenty. Tear down a house – more cellulose. Gather up wood chips and bark at a mill, collect agricultural waste, plant switch grass or miscanthus (grasses) on land that won’t grow anything else – and cellulose will never be in short supply.
My explanations are a trifle on the simplified side – consider the source – but there are basically two ways to turn cellulose into ethanol. There’s the biological approach and the thermo-chemical approach."

To read the entire article, click the title above.
and watch for the groundbreaking ceremony on the new facility this Autumn.