Corn, switchgrass, sugar cane, and poplar trees – each has been suggested as potential feedstock options for biofuel production. Using these feedstocks efficiently is hampered by identifying the right bug to break down the plant biomass, locating land to grow these crops, and finding the huge volume of water needed to produce the ethanol. Scientists in the heartland have bypassed plants and moved to an alternate feedstock–algae.
Algae are small single-celled organisms that, like plants on land, capture the energy from the sun and store it as chemical energy during photosynthesis. Unlike plants on land, algae do not have the more complicated biomass that makes corn, switchgrass, and all of the other feedstocks difficult to break down.
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