One lump or two?

[liberty]

I'd been thinking about coming up with some way to mimick the process of photosynthensis since that's how plants do some things we would really like to do: convert solar energy into hydrogen and/or high-energy electrons, split water, and sequester carbon for example. Coming up with synthetic counterparts for NADPH and ATP molecules is pure science fiction right now, but we do have access to the hydrogen plants store for later use - in sugar.

Look at these guys...

http://www.virent.com/company.htm

Using the hydrogen in sugar would certainly be carbon-neutral, but how much of the Earth's surface would be consumed farming such energy? Once the Greens caught wind of that they'll be begging us to tap the ANWR reserves instead!