Future Fuels

Biotech breakthroughs are making alternative fuels cheaper to produce. NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratories, created a new organism that makes it possible to get more from biomass. The genetically engineered organism improves the efficiency of bioethanol production, which lowers the product's cost. Ethanol is a clean-burning biofuel that helps reduce emissions of carbon monoxide and smog forming compounds. Ethanol is normally made from corn, but this breakthrough in genetic engineering allows a wide variety of biomass to be used to make the fuel.