Consider the following newspaper report.

Auke Ferwerda’s stove contains a few logs burning quietly with low flames. From a paper bag next to the stove he takes a handful of corn and puts it onto the flames. Immediately the fire flares up brightly. “Look here,” Ferwerda says, “The window of the stove stays clean and transparent. Combustion is complete.” Ferwerda talks about the fact that corn can be used as fuel as well as cattle food. As far as he is concerned, this is the future.

Ferwerda points out that corn, in the form of cattle food, is in fact a type of fuel too. Cows eat corn to get energy out of it. But, Ferwerda explains, the sale of corn for fuel instead of for cattle food might be much more profitable for farmers.

Ferwerda has become convinced that, in the long run, corn will be widely used as fuel. He imagines what it will be like harvesting, storing, drying and packing the grains in bags for sale.

Ferwerda is currently investigating whether the whole corn plant could be used as fuel, but this research has not been completed yet.

What Ferwerda also needs to consider is the amount of attention being focused on carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is regarded as the main cause of the increase of the Greenhouse effect. The increase of      the Greenhouse effect is said to be the cause of the increasing average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere.

In Ferwerda’s view, however, there is nothing wrong with carbon dioxide. On  the contrary, he argues, plants absorb it and convert it into oxygen for human beings.

However, Ferwerda’s plans may clash with those of the government, which is actually trying to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide. Ferwerda says, “There are many scientists who say that carbon dioxide is not the main cause of the Greenhouse effect.”