Biobutanol Firm Aims to Compete With Ethanol in 4 Years

The New York Times Energy & Environment
By JESSICA LEBER of ClimateWire
Published: January 13, 2010

Having launched its first pilot facility yesterday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger looking on, California startup Cobalt Technologies is the latest in a growing number of biofuel ventures banking on biobutanol as an attractive ethanol alternative.

Like ethanol, biobutanol can be fermented from plant sugars, either food grains or cellulosic plant parts. But because its structure is heavier than ethanol and more similar to gasoline, the advanced biofuel has a wider range of end uses -- it can be burned as a stand-alone transportation fuel; blended with diesel, ethanol or gasoline; converted into jet fuel or plastics; or sold in existing industrial chemical markets.

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