Beyond Ethanol -- The Environmental Lounge

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Subject: Beyond Ethanol

Author:
larry

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Date Posted: 17:23:21 01/30/08 Wed

it makes less fuel from corn. but its going to save the world lol

For now, making butanol is far less efficient than making ethanol in large part because it's more toxic to the microbes that ferment it. As a result, every bushel of corn yields less than 2 percent butanol, versus about 12 percent for ethanol. To change that, BP has enlisted DuPont scientists to genetically engineer hardier microbes. According to John Ranieri, head of biofuels development for DuPont, this will drastically improve butanol's yield, clearing the way for what is potentially a much more useful fuel.

Butanol has a chemical structure that provides advantages over ethanol. For instance, unlike ethanol, which is difficult to store and can corrode pipelines, butanol could make use of existing infrastructure. It could also be blended into conventional gasoline at higher rates than ethanol because of its low vapor pressure, which decreases its volatility and reduces fumes. And its higher energy content means it would provide better fuel economy than today's biofuel of choice.

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-01/beyond-ethanol

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: Beyond Ethanol	Duncan7	22:17:17 01/30/08 Wed