TOTAL INVESTS IN ALTERNATIVE FUELS.

The article reports on French oil company Total's participation in Futurol, a consortium of French manufacturers, researchers and financial institutions that intends to spend $105 million to develop a process for making ethanol by fermenting lignocellulosic biomass over the next eight years. Total will also participate in a Swedish consortium to make the diesel fuel substitute dimethyl ether through the gasification of black liquor, a by-product of the pulp and paper industry.