We had a stand of transgenic trees, which we were engineering to make them easier to pulp, so you could use fewer chemicals in the process.

ECONOMIST: Food and science

He admits that it is not simple to pull the sugars out of non-food material like pulp or wood waste, but says that even factoring in the extraction process, the final cost should be lower than using corn starch or sugar cane, both of which are much higher-priced commodities.

FORBES: Cobalt Technologies Pushes The Green Chemical Envelope

The next phase is to scale up the manufacturing process, with the aim of making the material rather as you would convert wood-pulp to newsprint.

ECONOMIST: Storing electricity