China will begin gassing up with cassava in 2007

Sure, China is playing global politics to ensure it will have a supply of oil as its population continues to grow and cars become more and more prevalent, but it is not neglecting home-grown biofuel made from the cassava plant.  The cassava-based ethanol will be used in cars in the southern region Guangxi starting in late 2007, state media reported on Friday. Ethanol production plants with a combined capacity of 1 millions tons a year will be built to produce the biofuel. Cassava (which some readers might have eaten as tapioca or under the name yuca) is a plant harvested in tropical and subtropical regions. China is already the third-largest ethanol producer in the world, mostly made from wheat and corn.
[Source: Engineering News via Renewable Energy Access]