Biobutanol Creeps Toward the Market

A type of fuel once used in Japanese aircraft during World War II is slowly making its way again toward the market, and its backers say that it will work better in automobiles than ethanol
DuPont and BP hope to produce the fuel, called biobutanol, on a commercial scale starting in 2013. They are currently testing it in Britain, where a demonstration-scale plant should start operations at the end of next year, according to Nick Fanandakis of DuPont’s applied biociences division.
A BP-DuPont takeover of an American biobutanol maker received regulatory approval from the European Commission last week.
The fuel — butyl alcohol derived from plant materials rather than fossil fuels — is being pursued by other companies as well. Last November a private equity company, Patriarch Partners, purchased a disused pulp mill in Maine, with the purpose of refitting it to produce biobutanol derived from maple, birch and beech tree chips.
Construction is expected to start early next year, with production of the fuel to begin in 2011, according to Dick Arnold, who manages the Old Town Fuel and Fiber mill.
Compared with ethanol, “Butanol is a superior fuel in many respects, whether it’s from a handling standpoint or from a usage standpoint or even a chemical standpoint,” said Mr. Arnold. “It’s a higher-grade fuel.”
Its backers say that butanol has a higher energy content than ethanol (Dupont plans to produce fuel with 30 percent more energy than ethanol). It is also easier to transport — unlike ethanol, it can go through pipelines.
The catch is that biobutanol has always been very expensive to produce (which is why it was abandoned after widespread use in the first half of the 20th century). DuPont says it has a new way of making biobutanol, using a microbe. “We will be at a cost-equivalent of ethanol on an energy basis,” predicted Mr. Fanandakis.
Ron Lamberty of the American Coalition for Ethanol said that currently biobutanol’s fuel yield per bushel of corn is currently less than half that of ethanol. But even if biobutanol is able to scale, he saw no competition between it and ethanol. “I guess I see all of these technologies as part of the strategy of making us more energy-independent,” he said.
To be sure, even after it is produced in reasonable volumes, biobutanol faces plenty of regulatory hurdles. It must get approval from the Environmental Protection Agency for use in the United States. The agency must certify that it produces 50 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions on a “lifecycle” basis than regular gasoline, according to Mr. Fanandakis.