Butanol

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Butanol Analysis
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• Energy Density
• Butanol contains 110,000 Btus per gallon
• Gasoline contains 115,000 Btus per gallon
• Ethanol contains 84,000 Btus per gallon
• Butanol has an energy density 30 greater then
  Ethanol

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• Vehicle Implementations
• Butanol can run in close to 100 concentrations
  with little modification
• For optimization the fuel injectors would need to
  be adjusted to allow more fuel to flow
• Butanol cannot be used in diesel engines

4

• Current Costs
• Butanol is used currently as an industrial
  solvent
• Butanol costs 3.75 even when bought by the barge
  load

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• Two Major Processes
• Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation
• Two stage fermentation process producing
  carboxylic acids and used by Environmental Energy
  (EEC)
• They both can be produced by a batch or
  continuous process

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• Hydrolysis-Pretreatment
• This is the first of the two stage processes
• The pretreatment can be either an acid or an
  enzymatic hydrolysis
• Acid hydrolysis is costly and the waste acid hard
  to dispose of
• Enzymatic hydrolysis is the most viable process
  but is not fully developed

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• Fermentation-Post Treatment
• Used to convert the now released sugars from the
  cellulose and hemicellulose into butanol
• For every 14 pounds of sugar, one gallon of
  butanol can be produced

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• Feed Stocks
• Both processes follow the same two pre/post
  treatments working with many feed stocks that
  produce sugar
• In the secondary step sugar is processed into
  butanol
• Considered feedstocks include corn, cellulose
  (switchgrass), and waste products (methane and
  whey)

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• Feasibility
• Currently butanol is not produced on a large
  scale
• We know plans for pilot plants are in the works
  but information is privatized
• New plants are scheduled to be built and in the
  next 3 years should be producing over 9 million
  gallons of butanol per year

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• Citations
• David Ramey dramey_at_butanol.com
• www.autobloggreen.com/2006/12/30/biobutanol-the-ot
  her-white-meat/
• http//i-r-squared.blogspot.com/
  2006/05/bio-butanol.html