(WCCO) Minneapolis As the president asked Americans to cut back on fossil fuels in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, the University of Minnesota is leading the way.

It's because today's students are studying tomorrow's fuel needs in a whole new way. In the last few decades, Minnesota has been a world leader in medical devices. "That industry is here because inventive people from the community and from the University came together to address that problem," explained Dr. Bob Elde, the Dean of the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Elde said the same opportunity is here now in the effort to lead the nation in creating renewable energy and biofuels. "That technology will have roots in Minnesota's economic soil," said Elde. It's a soil rich from the prairie grasses that grow here, and the farming that has "fed the world." WCCO-TV's Don Shelby visited the University to see the research. Shelby met with Dick Hemmingsen, the director of the Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment. "We're going to start in our center for bio-refining and look at some really innovative work on densifying this bulky biomass on the route towards next generation biofuels," Hemmingsen said. "I don't know what you just said but I'm interested, let's go," said Shelby. Hemmingsen was referring to the work of Professor Roger Ruan, who is making bio-crude. That's right -- black gold, Texas tea. "What grade of crude would this be? Would this be heavy crude?" asked Shelby. "Can you get the light sweet?" "Oh yeah, yeah. Again, different condensation temperatures will break down through different components," said Ruan. Ruan said a ton of corn stalks and leaves would yield about a half a ton of crude. The corn waste is burned in a microwave which can generate electricity and the leftover burnt material is an almost perfect fertilizer, Ruan said. "How far away are we from that technology being in place?" asked Shelby. "I think probably by the end of this year we should have a smaller pilot scale system running," said Ruan. Ruan's bio-crude is being tested in engines on campus too. "In fact we have a student from the Center for Diesel Research there," said Ruan. We followed the student back to the diesel lab and met Professor David Kittelson. "We're going through a revolution in fuels," Kittelson said. "And it turns out that engines, emission control systems, all operate differently with these new fuels. So it's important to know what are going to be the side effects when we put in these new fuels." Kittelson said these new bio-fuels will reduce the harmful carbon dioxide gasses released into the atmosphere. He is testing engines that, when burning conventional fuel, the exhaust they release is actually cleaner than the air to begin with. "And if we get our act together on bio-fuels and do it correctly, by 2030 Minnesota could actually be energy self-sufficient or even an exporter," Kittelson said. The next stop on the energy tour is Professor Jane Davidson's solar research labs. "There are people in Minnesota who'll say wait a minute. We live in one of the coldest places on earth and, my goodness, it's dark at 5 o'clock in the winter," Shelby said. "But isn't it true that we have a lot of sun to work with here?" "We do. And today is a wonderful example. It's very cold outside, but it's beautifully clear, blue, sunny skies," said Davidson. "So if you look at the resource in Minnesota, what you will find, is that it's not dissimilar from the resource in Jacksonville, Fla." "We're moving from a nearly monolithic approach to energy into what will be a very diverse portfolio of sources of energy," said Elde. "And the pathway from here to there has a lot of unknowns. So it's going to be a really interesting ride." Don Shelby reporting