What is one of the big potential benefits of using biomass as opposed to corn?
ANDY: There are a lot of reasons and a lot of additional benefits for using biomass as a source of ethanol as opposed to just corn grain, one of which is there is a lot more of it out there. The second is you avoid the food versus fuel issues. Corn grain is obviously an edible compound that can be eaten by humans and animals and everything else. Plant matter does not have that same food market so you avoid that debate. The third potential benefit is to farmers and rural America because it adds an additional income source and an additional market to sell the material. Here’s some corn stover — the stocks, the husks, the leaves, the cobs — every part of the plant that’s left over after the corn has been harvested. There are probably over one hundred million tons of this material available every year in the United States, most of which is just simply plowed back into the ground to help control erosion and build up the organic soil; there is really no other market for it and nothing else
