Biological energy sources for hydrogen and ethanol

Steve Spence over at Green Trust posted last week on work being done at the J. Craig Venter Institute that is working on both sides of the biofuel vs. hydrogen green car divide. Researchers at the Venter Institute are working with microbes and plants to reduce fossil fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. There aren't many details available at the Venter Institute's website, but Dr. Hamilton Smith is leading research projects to reengineer "the photosynthetic pathway to divert the sun's energy into more hydrogen production" as well as reengineer "cellulase pathways in certain bacterial to produce ethanol." John Craig Venter founded Synthetic Genomics last year to produce these energy sources from modified microorganisms.
[Source: Venter Institute via Green Trust ]