Researchers push butanol as biofuel answer

CNNMoney.com

Researchers look to ethanol's cousin butanol to meet aggressive biofuel push
November 11, 2008: 02:52 PM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Ethanol might reign as the king of biofuels, but several companies are betting that a close cousin may overcome some of its shortcomings.

Butanol has traditionally been used as paint thinner, cleaner and adhesive, but as a fuel additive it contains more energy than ethanol and could be blended into existing cars at higher percentages.

And unlike ethanol, butanol does not eat away at pipes so it doesn't need to be shipped by truck. That could help the nation meet its aggressive renewable fuels standard of 36 billion gallons of biofuels to be blended into gasoline by 2022, said Andy Aden, a research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

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