Watching grass grow is tedious, but researchers in the Oklahoma Panhandle say they'll stare at their switchgrass — all 1,000 acres of it — until they know whether they've found a commercially viable source of biofuel.

The site is billed as the largest such project in the world as scientists try to determine if making ethanol from switchgrass is cost effective. The goal is to determine whether small-scale experiments of using the tall, thin plant native to the Great Plains to make ethanol can be duplicated on a large scale.

Bio-fuels are liquid or gaseous fuels made from plant matter and residues, such as agricultural crops, municipal wastes and agricultural and forestry by-products. Liquid bio-fuels can be used as an alternative fuel for transport, as can other alternatives such as liquid natural gas (LNG), compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and hydrogen. Bio-fuels could significantly reduce the emissions from the road-transport sector if they were widely adopted. They have been shown to reduce carbon emissions, and may help to increase energy security.

ST. LOUIS, MO. -- More than 100 research and industry leaders gathered for "Algae-to-energy in the South," a regional summit examining algae's potential as a Renewable energy resource. Algae oil is among the many raw materials that can be used to make biodiesel.

Richard Sayre, the Director of the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, said that biodiesel is a sustainable component of our fuel supply.