Tequila plant could be new biofuel

Tequila could play a part in the future development of biofuel, it has been revealed.

Agave, a desert plant used to distil tequila, could now be used as a key crop in the production of biofuel.

The plant is highly adaptable, can grow quickly in marginal, desert and water-limited land and produces enough sugars to make it the ideal candidate for biofuel production.

Furthermore, the emissions from agave-derived biofuel are significantly lower than those produced with corn, only emitting 35g of CO2 per megajoule in their entire production process, compared to 85g per megajoule.

These characteristics make agave important to future biofuel and also allow it to avoid the common argument that biofuels increase world hunger by competing for land and water.

"In a world where arable land and water resources are increasingly scarce, these are key attributes in the food vs fuel argument, which is likely to intensify given the expected large-scale growth in biofuel production," Andrew Smith, professor of plant sciences at the University of Oxford and one of the authors of a report into the plant, acknowledged.