Sweet potatoes apparently yield 2 to 3 times the amount of of carbohydrate for fuel ethanol production.

While sugarcane still tops the list for biofuels, the sweet potato approaches the lower-limits of sugarcane output. It's important to consider how fuel is grown, as well, and sweet potatoes take less fertilizer, water and pesticides than corn. Where sweet potatoes are grown matters, too. For instance, you can get more production out of a Maryland sweet potato than an Alabama sweet potato.

The labor costs for sweet potato (and cassava, which is also an efficient biofuel) are higher, though, because it takes more time to plant and harvest these roots. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) data suggests that it would be worthwhile to try fuel pilot programs with these crops.

It's unclear if sweet potatoes and cassavas would cause some of the same issues, however, that corn ethanol has--including land change, food price and general environmental costs.

Source: Science Daily

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