Can Panda Poop Make Biofuel A Reality?

With their raccoon-like eyes and reclusive nature, giant pandas have long held a special place in the hearts of millions of zoo-goers, children, and adults alike. Now, scientists are finding out there's something else unique about this species: their feces.

According to researchers at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Denver on September 5, microbes found in panda poop can break down the fibrous material in grass, corn stalks, wood chips -- and of course bamboo, the main diet of the secretive animal.

Under certain conditions, the panda poop bacteria can covert ninety-five percent of plant biomass into simple sugars, eliminating the need for high heat, harsh acids, and high pressures currently used to produce biofuels. Bacteria would also be a more energy-efficient way to turn materials such as switchgrass, corn stalks, and wood chips into fuel, said Ashli Brown, a biochemist at Mississippi State University and one of the study's researchers.

So what does this have to do with alternative fuels? Currently, most biofuels, or ethanol, are derived from corn or sugarcane, edible plants that could be going to feed human populations. Widely considered to be an inefficient use of land and resources, some have even called traditional biofuels "crime against humanity" saying it will artificially inflate the price of food and create food shortages that will lead to millions going hungry.

With these new-found microbes, however, scientists could be looking at developing more efficient biofuels that can be derived from inedible plants and plant waste.

"Who would have guessed that 'panda poop' might help solve one of the major hurdles to producing biofuels, which is optimizing the breakdown of the raw plant materials used to make the fuels?" said Brown. "We hope our research will help expand the use of biofuels in the future and help cut dependency on foreign oil."

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