Biobutanol, a competitor for ethanol?

DuPont and BP, riding the global wave of enthusiasm for bio-based fuels, announced today that the two companies have developed a new biofuel called biobutanol that they say has 30% more energy density than ethanol. "Biobutanol is higher performance in the engine, and that will translate into higher miles to the gallon," said DuPont Chief Executive Charles Holliday.

DuPont and BP have been working on the new fuel since 2003. The two companies plan to introduce the first generation of biobutanol in the U.K. by the end of 2007. And they hope to roll out an improved second-generation biobutanol by 2010. DuPont and BP aim to make the fuel competitive with gasoline, even when oil is priced as low as $30 to $40 a barrel.

Luckily for us, biobutanol can be produced from classic tropical starch or sugar energy crops, such as cassava, sugar cane, sago and sorghum.

Currently, biofuels account for just 2% of all fuel consumption. But biofuels could account for 30% of all fuel consumption by 2020, some sources predict. Dupont and BP estimate the global market for biofuels could reach 87 billion gallons by 2020, up from just under 11 billion gallons today.

One distinct advantage of biobutanol: Cars can use close to 100% of the fuel without making any vehicle modifications, DuPont says. To use that high a concentration of ethanol, car engines have to be modified into something known as a "flex fuel vehicle."

"If they can deliver what they are saying, and you don't even have to make a change in the vehicle, that is a positive check in the column," says Ron Pernick, a partner at clean-technology research and publishing firm Clean Edge. "But I don't think we should look at this and say, 'Let's stop ethanol.' We are moving away from a world with one fuel source to one with a diversity of sources. The market will determine which are the winners and which are the losers."

Biobutanol can blend effectively with gasoline and ethanol, and can be used in existing transportation-pipeline infrastructure, DuPont says. The new butanol is a four-carbon alcohol, whereas ethanol is a two-carbon alcohol. Biobutanol has greater tolerance of moisture and lower vapor pressure, says DuPont Chief Innovation Officer Thomas Connelly.

Butanol as a fuel has been around a long time, but the cost to produce it was never competitive with gasoline. Using plant sugars as a feedstock, DuPont and BP believe they can favorably compete with gasoline. Meanwhile, DuPont and BP have to perfect the technology to improve production of biobutanol. "We're working on starch structures that can be more efficiently fermented," says Connelly.

BP and DuPont are not announcing the investment into the project. But Holliday says the investment is more akin to developing software than building a new chemical plant.

The fact that biobutanol is more energy efficient than ethanol does not wipe out ethanol's appeal, says Clean Edge's Pernick. Saab has come up with a new vehicle that it says gets better mileage from ethanol than from gasoline. "There are ways of getting around the energy-efficiency issue of ethanol," says Pernick.

Forbes.