DuPont, BP Search For Perfect Ethanol Substitute

By PHILIP BRASHER
Des Moines Register, WASHINGTON BUREAU

September 26, 2007

Wilmington, Del. - DuPont and British energy giant BP are moving forward with plans to develop biobutanol as an alternative fuel that would have advantages over ethanol.

The companies are still several years away from having a commercially viable process for producing the butanol. However, BP plans to start testing the fuel later this year in engines and in manufacturing, using butanol that will be made in a previously shuttered facility in China.

The Chinese plant can make the fuel through an inefficient process that produces other chemicals, including ethanol, along with butanol, DuPont officials said.

BP plans to use the butanol to figure out how best to blend it in gasoline and market the fuel, said John Ranieri, a DuPont vice president.

Butanol has a higher energy content than ethanol, so it provides more miles per gallon. Butanol can also be shipped more easily than ethanol. Unlike ethanol, butanol doesn't absorb water, so it can be mixed with gasoline and shipped through conventional gasoline pipelines. Because of the water absorption issue, ethanol is shipped via railroad, barges and trucks rather than through gasoline pipelines.

DuPont is working with BP to develop a microbe that will produce butanol from crops without the chemical byproducts - acetone and ethanol - Ranieri said.

To perfect the process, the companies are developing a pilot plant in Great Britain capable of producing about 5,000 gallons a year. A larger plant nearby will initially produce ethanol from wheat but will be converted to make butanol once the process is ready for commercialization. That facility will be able to produce 110 million gallons per year.

Des Moines Register, Sept. 26, 2007