Current emphasis upon biofuels involves redirection of present USA crops such as corn toward conversion to ethanol, which is blended with so-called "fossil" fuels in order to achieve lower vehicle emission rates.  Unfortunately, there are costs related to these "benefits".  For one, given current approaches to ethanol production, converting the entire corn crop of the USA toward satisfying this goal would not significantly impact our dependence upon "fossil" fuels - and it would remove a valuable source of food.  Enter the bugs.

Termites, as most folks know, eat wood.  Actually, they bite cellulose, and the microbes in their guts turn cellulose into energy.  The currently most promising approach to biofuel technology therefore involves termite guts and the little engines that live in them.  The idea is not to replicate what happens in termite guts, but rather, to identify and extend the pathways that are involved in the conversion of cellulose to energy - or in this case, ethanol.

Assuming that an enhanced conversion process can be derived from the studies (which appears promising), then ethanol could be produced relatively inexpensively and from any number of sources.  In Illinois, an initial project was able to produce 2,500 gallons of ethanol from an acre of grass.  This could get interesting.