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Ethanol gets a lot of attention as the biofuel of choice in America. But BP claims that butanol will provide greater benefits than ethanol and is betting at least some of their chips on it as the gasoline-alternative to watch out for.
Butanol's advantages over ethanol arise from its gasoline-like properties. A criticism of ethanol is the reduction in mileage per gallon because it has 2/3 the energy density of gasoline. Butanol, on the other hand, has more than 80% energy density of gasoline. Also, traditional fuel pipelines can not be used with ethanol since water mixes into it, but Butanol does this to a lesser extent and so could be used with more existing infrastructure. Best of all, butanol can be made from the same feedstocks as ethanol: corn starch, sugar beets, and other sugar starches.
BP currently has partnered with DuPont to find better ways to make butanol. They note that ethanol has taken a long time gain a foothold, and so butanol likely will not be available for quite some time.
Whatever the reason, if butanol really is better than ethanol, there is no reason why there should not be space for it in the world's search for cleaner energy.
Source: Technology Review
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written by Smart Highscool Kid, May 02, 2008
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written by SRMORB, December 20, 2008
It will also provide the stepping stone for the
developement and application of Butano. This is how the biofuel technology evolves. One source
of biofuel will pave the way for the developement of a more advanced and efficient source.
The dude 2 opinions up sounds like he would'nt
consider Avation advancement beyond the Neuport aircraft. (That's a biplane used in WW1.)
Consider this thought. Butanol has been compared
as the rocket fuel of biofuels.
Let's perfect ethanol(The Neuport)in order to find means to perfect butanol (The P-51 Mustang).
Then we'll discover more advanced biofuels (The
f-15 Eagle)and so on.
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written by Rachel, November 24, 2009
Ethanol production is pretty good already. We drink it all the time, that's why it's such a popular biofuel. But it is not a good biofuel.
Butanol and ethanol are very different compounds. They also behave differently. The infrastructure required for ethanol is entirely different than butanol. It would require us to modify car engines, and it requires heat to distill it from water, and we wouldn't be able to use pipes to transport it. In short, relying on ethanol is expensive, plus we will certainly end up using more energy than we will gain from burning it.
The infrastructure required for butanol already exists. It can run in unmodified car engines, it is insoluble in water, and can be transported through pipes. I say dump ethanol because its energy density is weak, and use butanol, which has a similar energy density to that of gasoline.
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But it will take time before BP and Dupont streamline production costs. Unfortunately no real application before 2010 at least...:-
And cellulosic ethanol will probably be available and competitive before. A stark example of the coming breakthrough in cellulosic ethanol is the Canadian company Iogen: this company is likely to bring cheap ethanol in the next 2 or 3 years.
I would rather bet on ethanol.