date:Nov 22, 2012
xplains that corn-based ethanol supplies are facing a crunch because corn is critical for animal feed and food. They note that the need for new sources of ethanol has shifted attention to using stover (the leaves, stalks and cobs), which is the most abundant agricultural residue in the US, estimated at 170-256 million tons per year.
The challenge was to find a way to break down the tough material in cobs, stalks and leaves so that sugars inside can be fermented to ethanol. Previous studies ind