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Secrets Of Biomass Processing - In Their Poop  An adult giant
panda eats from 20 - 40 pounds of bamboo a day: image via
justanimalpic.comAn adult giant panda eats from 20 - 40 pounds
of bamboo a day: image via justanimalpic.com  Giant pandas are
still very rare, so it's not likely that their poop will be used
as a substitute for gasolene, but the chemical analysis of panda
poop has provided new information about the microbes that assist
pandas in digesting some of the roughest roughage in nature -
lignocellulose - and that information could certainly lead to a
biofuel that is much more efficient than any biomass fuels that
are being produced currently.   Lignocellulose is present in
switch grass, corn stalks, wood chips and, yes, bamboo - all
cheap, non-food sources of fuel supply.  But breaking this
fibrous stuff down?    Researchers at Mississippi University
studied the bacteria in the feces of male and female pandas for
more than a year; after