Alternative Fuel: Could Cheese Run the Cars of the Future?

Instead of oil tycoons could we soon have cheese tycoons? Is Wisconsin the New Texas? The possibility is here, as Syracuse researcher, Dr. John Fieschko, just won a $400,000 grant to investigate the potential of cheese fuel, according to a story in the Times-Picayune.

Fieschko, executive director of the Central New York Biotechnology Research Center and leading consultant to the biotechnology industry, hopes to develop whey protein, leftover waste from cheese-making, into a viable fuel alternative. When milk is curdled, strained and manufactured into cheese, it leaks whey, a milky plasma rich in lactose sugar. Considering the success of other sugary biofuels like ethanol or butanol, Fieschko believes whey could be the next answer to fossil fuels.

Whey will come from the Kraft Foods cream cheese factory in Lowville, N.Y. The Kraft Foods facility in Lowville is the company's largest cream cheese plant. Each year, it makes about 200 million pounds of cream cheese.

Alternative fuels run the gamut. From corn to peanut oil, hydroelectricity to vegetable oil, animal fat to soybeans, even expired prescription drugs, biotech engineers have long opened their eyes to bizarre, yet promising, fuel alternatives. This fuel however, would take the cheesecake.

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