Alternative Fuel Vehicle: Any dedicated, flexible-fueled, or dual-fueled vehicle designed to operate on at least one alternative fuel (defined by the Energy Policy Act as fuel derived from E-85, natural gas, hydrogen, bio-diesel, electricity, or biological materials). This excludes reformulated gasoline as an alternative fuel.

Biomass: Living and recently living biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production. Examples include switchgrass, corn stover, sugarcane, and trees. The particular plant used is usually not important to the end product. Production of biomass is a growing industry as interest in sustainable fuel sources is growing.

Cellulosic Ethanol: Ethanol that can be produced from most all biomass, including waste from urban, agricultural and forestry sources. Cellulosic ethanol is produced by converting cellulose into sugars which are then fermented into ethanol.

Ethanol: Also known as ethyl alcohol, it is a fuel converted from biomass materials and used to power motor vehicles, most often in combination with gasoline to form gasohol. Gasohol is created by converting starch crops into sugars, fermenting the sugars into ethanol, and then distilling the product. It can be produced from cellulose as well.

Ethanol Production Facility: A facility in which biomass and grains are processed into gallons of fuel grade ethanol. In the United States, most ethanol is currently produced from corn. These ethanol production plants employ either a wet mill or dry mill process. Wet milling involves separating the corn kernel into its component parts prior to fermentation. With the dry mill process, the entire corn kernel is ground into flour; the starch in the flour is then converted to ethanol during the fermentation process, creating carbon dioxide and distillers grain.

Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV): Also known as a dual-fuel vehicle, it is a vehicle that can operate on alcohol fillers (methanol or ethanol), regular unleaded gasoline, or any combination of the two. A computer in the fuel system automatically compensates for the varying levels of ethanol in the fuel to assure optimum performance. Typical cars can run on gasoline-ethanol combinations with up to 15% ethanol (E-15), but going beyond that generally requires special engineering. In the United States, many flexible-fuel vehicles can accept up to 85% ethanol (E-85).