Mumbai: Honda Motor Co has co-developed a process for producing ethanol out of cellulosic biomass, which it claims to be world's first practical process for using non-edible plant materials as fuel.

Honda has partnered Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE), a non-profit entity set up by the Japanese government and private enterprises, for perfecting the new process.

Honda said the new process can be used to produce large volumes of ethanol from widely available waste wood, leaves and other soft biomass.

Ethanol is now produced mainly from sugar cane and corn, which raises the issue of balancing their use as food crops.

Ethanol, which is a major renewable fuel, is widely used as motor fuel in Brazil and is gaining popularity in the United States. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is on its way to becoming a mainstream world commodity as soaring prices for crude oil and gasoline push consumers to use more "green" fuels produced from renewable resources.

Current technology for converting cellulosic biomass yields only very low levels of ethanol due to fermentation problems - a problem associated with the process of separating cellulose and hemicellulose from soft biomass.

The new process uses a microorganism developed by RITE that helps reduce the fermentation interference, allowing for far more efficient ethanol production.

Honda's research unit Honda R&D Co is planning to set up a pilot plant in 2008 to test the technology for practical application.