I am too lazy to find all of the articles about it, so I am directing you to the wikipedia page instead:
Switchgrass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. That is the supposed super fuel source of the future. Everyone except the energy companies seems to know corn is not efficient for biofuel. Your two leading contenders are algae and switchgrass.
Algae grows fastest of all photosynthesizing organisms and many companies are working with algae now to develop fuel farms. They are trying to grow it in plastic bags. The benefit is that it can be grown anywhere, including in the desert where there is plenty of sun, land is cheap and the warm weather will be conducive to the algae growing. Algae just needs water, sunlight and CO2 to grow, and the plastic bags keep the algae free from wild strains.
The leading terrestrial candidate is switchgrass. Natural plant in the US, VERY hardy, produces a lot of biomass per acre (6-10 dry tons per year per acre). Through gasification it can be converted to charcoal, woodgas, and bio-oil. The energy output is about 5 times out what you have to put in to produce it, so it is way more efficient than corn.
