The Energy Blog

Bodman Speaks on Transportation Fuels

In an interview on CNBC a few minutes ago, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman responding to a question about what he saw for the future supply of power for the transportation market said that he saw solar power, wind power, plug-in hybrids using solar and wind power, and biofuels such as ethanol and butanol as being the future power sources.

I view this response remarkable in two respects 1) the mention of plug-ins with such importance and without (the apparent need for) any attempt to explain what they were and 2) the mention of butanol as an important biofuel.  This represents a change in the administrations attitude over the past couple of years as plug-ins and butanol were not in their vocabulary before that.  This points out the success of the efforts of CalCars (California Cars Initiative) and Plug in Partners in promoting plug-in hybrid vehicles as well as the efforts of the various biofuel advocate groups.

BP, DuPont Update Progress on Biobutanol Plans

At the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) annual conference BP and Dupont speakers reported that biobutanol has proven to perform similarly to unleaded gasoline on key parameters, based on ongoing laboratory-based engine testing and limited fleet testing.

In 2006, the companies announced their joint strategy to deliver advanced biofuels that help meet increasing global demand for renewable transportation fuels, leveraging DuPont’s advanced biotechnology capabilities and BP’s fuel marketing and technology expertise. The first product targeted for introduction will be biobutanol.

“Biobutanol addresses market demand for fuels that can be produced from domestic renewable resources in high volume and at reasonable cost; fuels that can be used in existing vehicles and existing infrastructure; fuels that offer good value to consumers; and fuels that meet the evolving demands of vehicles,” said Frank Gerry, BP Biofuels program manager.

Dupont Provides Update on its Biofuels Activities

A DuPont (NYSE: DD) executive says his company's cellulosic technology delivers more energy output for energy input than conventional grain ethanol... or even gasoline.

Speaking as one of the keynote speakers at the World Biofuels Markets, DuPont Biofuels Vice President & General Manager John Ranieri provided an update on the company's initiatives to deliver technologies to produce biofuels.

DuPont has a three-part biofuels strategy that includes:

1. Discovering new technologies to make advanced biofuels, such as biobutanol
2. Developing technologies to convert agricultural feedstocks and energy crops into biofuels
3. Improving the yield of grain ethanol production through by increasing yield per acre of energy crops

Biobutanol Partnership with BP and Advanced Biofuels Pipeline: DuPont's partnership with BP to develop biobutanol is based on its strategy to bring advanced biofuels to market to expand the use of biofuels in gasoline. Biobutanol will be the first advanced performance product available from this partnership. It resolves fuel stability issues in that biobutanol-gasoline blends can potentially be distributed via the existing fuel supply infrastructure; it improves blend flexibility allowing higher biofuels blends with gasoline; it improves fuel efficiency (better miles per gallon) compared to incumbent biofuels; and, it enhances ethanol-gasoline blends by lowering the vapor pressure when co-blended with these fuels. Biobutanol is targeted for introduction later this year in the United Kingdom. Additional global capacity will be introduced as market conditions dictate.

Government Nets Out Positive on Ethanol, Biobutanol Coming to US

Expert: Ethanol industry will grow

Jerry Perkins, Des Moines Register, February 21, 2007

... Keith Collins, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief economist, has estimated that the ethanol-fueled increase in corn prices lowered federal payments to farmers by $6 billion last year. Dinneen said $2.7 billion from the ethanol industry in new federal tax revenues meant that taxpayers gained a return on their investment in government subsidies paid to ethanol producers.

... Biobutanol ... could be marketed in the United States as early as 2010, said Dennis Magyar, industry manager for North America for DuPont Biofuels. ...

Magyar said the partners are looking for a U.S. site to build a biobutanol plant. He said biobutanol will complement - not compete with - ethanol.

Iowa is a contender for the plant, he said. That's because existing ethanol plants can be retrofitted to make biobutanol. ...

UK Firm, Green Biologics, Awarded $1.1 Million to Develop Biobutanol

Green Biologics Ltd (GBL), an Oxfordshire biotechnology company, was awarded £560,000 (US$1.1 million) to boost 'green' fuel development, specifically biobutanol, with £250,000 (US$500,000 ) funding from the Department of Trade and Industry-led Technology Program and £310,000 (US$610,000) from shareholder investors and business angels.

Butafuel™, their patented biobutanol, is an advanced transportation biofuel based on butanol. Butanol is derived from waste plant material (cellulosic biomass) offering a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.

Biobutanol is produced by the clostridial fermentation of starch and sugars, a process first commercialised in 1916 to produce acetone for munitions for the war effort but which was displaced in the 1950s by a cheaper petrochemical method.

GBL plans to develop a way of manufacturing biobutanol which will slash the cost of production by up to a third. Biobutanol is currently used as a chemical feed for stock but high production costs have prevented it being widely used as a fuel. Butanol is a liquid fuel that can be readily integrated into the existing fuel infrastructure, it has a high energy yield, similar to gasoline; low vapor pressure and can easily be stored, handled and transported via pipelines.

Dupont, BP to Produce Biobutanol

Dupont and BP will begin marketing the first generation of biobutanol in the UK in 2007.  Working with British Sugar they are converting the UK's first ethanol femantation facility to produce 30,000 tonnes annually of biobutanol made from sugar beets. Biobutanol, does not adsorb water as ethanol does and thus unlike ethanol could be distributed through pipelines. It has a 30% higher energy content than ethanol which translates to greater mpg.  It can be blended with either gasoline or ethanol and when added to gasoline it can be used in high concentrations, up to near 100% of the fuel without vehicle modifications. The process yields not just butanol, but acetone and ethanol as well.

Production is intended to utilize a range of feedstocks such as sugar cane or sugar beet, corn, wheat, or cassava and, in the future, cellulosic feedstocks from fast growing "energy crops" such as grasses, or "agricultural byproducts" such as straw and corn stalks.