Honda envisions cars that run on leaves, rice straw

[jpak]

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7B94003F69-7C5D-4E1C-BF4E-E596FBD7F56D%7D&keyword=

That's the idea behind a new technology developed by Honda Motor Co. (7267.TO) and a Japanese research firm, which said Thursday that they have developed a way to produce ethanol fuel from cellulose and hemicellulose found in leaves and stalks of plants.

The process offers a new way to produce ethanol, a fuel that has been a focus of attention as a way to cut carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as it derives from plants that absorb CO2 through photosynthesis. Ethanol use for vehicles is also being touted to cost-conscious consumers as an alternative to gasoline, whose price has risen sharply.

"The new process represents a large step forward for practical application of soft-biomass as a fuel source," said Honda and its partner, Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, or RITE.
Until now, bio-ethanol has been made mostly from sugar and starch of sugarcane and corn feedstock, which are both also used as food. That poses supply constraints, which the new technology offers the potential to overcome.

"There will be a supply problem" as growth in demand for ethanol fuel will likely make it difficult to secure enough sugarcane and corn both for food and ethanol, RITE Chief Research Hideaki Yukawa said at a press conference.

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[Spinzonner]

1. Will they call it the 'Grasshopper' ?

[silverweb]

5. I hope so!

That would be so perfect!

:D

[William769]

2. Back in the 80's when I had a Honda & my friends called it a rice burner

I guess they were right!

[NickB79]

8. LOL we still call them rice burners

Especially the ones with the 4-ft tall spoilers that look like WWI-era fighter plane wings :-)

[TlalocW]

3. Great

The oil companies will sue me for having trees in my yard.

TlalocW

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. Stephen Colbert called it! "...a mesquite powered car!"

LOL.

[Kolesar]

6. Honda reinvented the donkey cart?

[JohnWxy]

7. Good post. Some more from the linked article:

Honda is positioning ethanol as a core part of its alternative-fuel strategy. Already, Honda vehicles now sold in the U.S. and Japan can operate on a mixture of fuel with up to 10% ethanol content. (note that all spark ignition ICEs can run on 10% ethanol__JW) Honda plans to launch a new model that can run on 100% ethanol in Brazil by the end of the year.

Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.TO), Japan's biggest carmaker, also plans to introduce a vehicle that can run on 100% ethanol to the Brazilian market in the spring of 2007.

Honda will set up an experiment plant to further develop the basic technology over the next few years, said Tomohiko Kawanabe, a Senior Managing Director at Honda R&D Co.


Here's some more on HOnda's efforts from USA Today:

Honda Sees Possible Ethanol Breakthrough

Ethanol is harder to make from biowaste because cellulose is a more complicated molecule, says Nathanael Greene, who tracks bioenergy for the Natural Resources Defense Council.


There are several different ways to try to coax more ethanol out of cellulose, the potentially most abundant energy source in the world, says Norm Olson, who manages an Iowa State University biomass research center.

[hunter]

9. I'll ask the question again... Why bother with ethanol?

Why not just make gasoline or diesel fuel out of biomass?

Oh right... ADM, etc.