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In its collaborative research, RITE and Honda have established the basic technology to produce ethanol fuel from cellulose and hemicellulose*, both found in soft-biomass*, including inedible leaves and stalks of plants, such as rice straw. Until now, such soft-biomass represented a challenge to convert to ethanol. Thus, the new process represents a large step forward for practical application of soft-biomass as a fuel source.

This is great! I wonder if things like grass and yard clippings could be used. I'd gladly drop off my yard waste to a processing plant.

It would be great if one day we could dump garbage into the car, like on Back to the Future.

Honda to Begin Production of E100 Flex-Fuel Cars for Brazil

The Yomiuri Shimbun reports that Honda will begin producing flex-fuel cars capable of running solely on bioethanol—E100. The report follows Honda’s announcement that it, in partnership with RITE, has developed a process for the production of cellulosic ethanol. (Earlier post.)

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