Duckweed is latest entry for production.

• Position: Biofuel - Brief article

The search for a less-expensive, sustainable source of biomass, or plant material, for producing gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel has led scientists to duckweed, that fast-growing floating plant that turns ponds and lakes green, relates a report in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

Christodoulos A. Floudas, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton (N.J.) University, explains that duckweed, an aquatic plant that floats on or near the surface of still or slow-moving freshwater, is ideal as a raw material for biofuel production.

It grows fast, thrives in wastewater that has no other use, does not impact the food supply, and can be harvested more easily than algae and other aquatic plants. However, few studies have been done on the use of duckweed as a raw...