[Gasification] Cellulosic Ethanol a dead end

[Bob Stuart]

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Thomas Reed" <tombreed at comcast.net>

>   Mother Nature
> designed starch to be converted to sugar.  She designed cellulose  
> NOT to
> be converted into sugar.  Given enough subsidies it can be commercial
> today, but so could many other processes with higher payback.

Well, I don't know much chemistry, but I thought that anything ending  
in "ose" already is a sugar.  Is it the associated lignin that causes  
problems, or the structure of the molecule?  Cows process it OK, but  
they use four vats.

Best,
Bob Stuart