Perhaps Medoff's most consequential discovery is how to extract the plant sugars and convert them into to environmentally-friendly biofuels: ethanol, gasoline and jet fuel. Lesley Stahl: And I'm told that you call this thing a still. Marshall Medoff: It is a still. Lesley Stahl: It is a still? Marshall Medoff: It's actually making alcohol right now. Alcohol that you can drink, or you can put in your car, or you can do both. Marshall Medoff: Here we are, on the road again. Lesley Stahl: So Marshall, I am driving a huge truck on biomass fuel. It doesn't feel any different than normal gas to me. Marshall Medoff: No. It wouldn't. No. Medoff's ethanol is much better than regular corn ethanol in terms of greenhouse gas emissions - 77 percent better, according to a study that was independently reviewed.This is definitely worth watching. I have no idea if this can be scaled up, but it would seem to be more promising than previous efforts. Of course, there was no information about how much biomass would have to be harvested in order to produce 30% of petroleum used in the country, but it takes 30 to 40 million acres of corn to produce 10% of the gasoline we consume. I'd probably still take the side saying this won't work out.
Video after the jump.
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