Honda announced Thursday that it may have found a breakthrough in converting leaves, plant stalks and other biowaste into the alternative fuel ethanol. The new process makes the conversion more efficient by using a microorganism developed by a Japanese lab that can chomp its way through vegetation more efficiently than in the past. The new bugs are better at converting sugar in plants into alcohol, or as it's known in its denatured form, ethanol. The process results in a "significant increase in production of bio-ethanol," Honda said in a statement from Tokyo. The improvements deal more effectively with "fermentation inhibitors" that get in the way of the microorganisms.