Gasification May Be Key to U.S. Ethanol

March 5, 2007 By DIRK LAMMERS, AP Business Writer

(AP) -- The government awarded $385 million in grants last week aimed at jumpstarting ethanol production from nontraditional sources like wood chips, switchgrass and citrus peels. What's surprising is that half of the six projects chosen will use a process first discovered almost a century ago to turn coal into a gas.

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