Ethanol bashing is all the rage these days. If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you know why. Food prices are rising faster than they have in decades, and one factor – among many – is that corn crops once used for food and animal feed are now being converted into corn-based ethanol.

For my "Green Options" story (which will be broadcast this Thursday, May 15th), I met with a scientist-turned-businessman who is also talking trash when it comes to ethanol – but in a good way. His company Zymetis grows a bacterium that basically eats up waste materials – scrap paper, woodchips, cellulose fibers from waste streams – and spits out ethanol. So instead of using food to generate ethanol, Zymetis uses trash.

It’s a promising and exciting approach and one that dodges the raging “food for fuel” debate. Compared to corn-based ethanol, the process consumes less energy, and the final product gives you more bang for your energy buck. As far as ramping up production to a commercial scale…well, that’s still a major challenge, both in terms of economics and logistics. Employees at Zymetis still haven’t worked out those kinks, although they are working hard to get there.

But the final product is still ethanol, for better or worse. Given the developments of so many green technologies – plug-in hybrid cars, high efficiency solar panels, wind energy – I’m still trying to figure what the best Green Options will be and where ethanol will fit in the bigger picture.