Federal funding worth $1.3 million will boost a Mississippi State University professor's efforts to find an alternative energy source using rice byproducts.

"There are many wasted materials in agriculture," said Dr. Zhaohua Peng, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at MSU and the project's principal investigator. "This project is trying to use the agricultural residue to make ethanol. The long-term goal is to use straw to make ethanol."

MSU's award, announced Thursday, is the largest grant among 11 projects funded by a total $8.3 million from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy. Other recipients include, among others, projects at the University of Georgia and Florida State University.