Posted on 05/15/2008 12:05:08 PM PDT by gleeaikin
Starting in the 1960s, the growth of the petroleum industry and the cheaper cost of producing butanol from petroleum products rather than renewable feedstocks made the biobased butanol plant obsolete. The last significant vestige of the industry—a facility in South Africa—ceased its operations in the early 1980s.
But rising oil prices and concerns surrounding climate change and national security have rejuvenated interest, research and development into biobutanol. Although the primary use for the alcohol is as an industrial solvent, it offers several advantages over ethanol as a transportation fuel. Since the molecule contains four carbons compared with the two of ethanol, those extra chemical bonds release more energy when burned. In addition, butanol is less volatile than ethanol, it can be used at a 100 percent blend in internal combustion engines without any modifications, it doesn’t attract water like ethanol so it can be transported in existing pipelines and it is less sensitive to colder temperatures. “Butanol is an excellent fuel,” says Nasib Qureshi, a chemical engineer with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Peoria, Ill. “As a result of gas prices going up it is looking more effective than ethanol and more effective than gasoline.”
(Excerpt) Read more at biomassmagazine.com ...
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For those wondering about how it can be made, check the link on Comment 7. Also ethanol has 85K BTU, versus 110K for butanol and 115K for gasoline, so it is a lot closer to gasoline in energy availability.
Butanol is far less volatile than either gasoline or ethanol, which makes it a lot safer, and presumable would reduce the smell factor. This also enables it to be pipelined unlike ethanol.
Regarding algae. Algae is still in early developmental stages, whereas there is a 50 plus year history on butanol. It is far closer to being commercially ready, which no doubt is why DuPont and BP are interested.
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