Green fuel replaces gas – gallon for gallon (Bob Fitrakis)

[MelissaB]

Green fuel replaces gas – gallon for gallon

November 11, 2005

Bob Fitrakis

I’ve seen the future replacement for gasoline, its name is butanol.

In August, I was attending a conference of the International Association of Educators for World Peace at the University of San Francisco, when a 1992 Buick rolled up on campus. The sign on its door read, “Powered by: 100% BUTANOL www.Butanol.com.”

The driver, David Ramey, had just driven from Blacklick, Ohio to the west coast on a fuel that replaces gasoline, gallon for gallon, with no engine modifications. Within a few minutes, Dave had us touching, smelling and burning butanol in small samples he supplied. The first thing I noticed is the absence of black smoke when it’s burned indoors.

“I began this project looking for a sustainable fuel source for small farmers to put in their tractors, then I realized you could put it right in a car,” Ramey told us.

As Ramey explains, there is a lot of excess biomass laying around in agricultural communities, as well as processing waste from corn refineries and cheese factories. The dairy industry has to pay to have billions of tons of cheese waste removed every year. Why not make fuel out of it?

More: http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1255

[MelissaB]

1. Walmart! Walmart! Walmart!

[chalky]

5. Please edumacate me on the connection to Walmart.

Not being snide--I've been out of the loop.

[MelissaB]

7. It doesn't relate at all. It's just that all threads seem to be about

Walmart this morning, and the others aren't getting many replies.

[NJCher]

2. Will the midwest be an agricultural Saudi Arabia?

Cher

[RoyGBiv]

3. This is interesting ...

I'm curious about the process for producing it, though. The person is claiming a process has been developed for producing it efficiently in quanities that would exceed the same efficiency level of ethanol production. The low yields of butanol production has always been its downfall.

If the process the person has works, this is quite exciting.

[pnorman]

4. GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND!

Butanol is a higher alcohol with a 4 carbon atom structure and a general formula of C4H10O. There are 4 different isomeric structures for butanol:


butan-1-ol CH3-CH2-CH2-CH2-OH
(also n-butanol)

butan-2-ol CH3-CH2-CH(OH)-CH3

isobutyl alcohol CH3-CH-CH3
|
CH2OH

OH
|
tert-butyl alcohol CH3-C-CH3
|
CH3

These butanol isomers, due to their different structures, have somewhat different melting and boiling points. All are moderately miscible in water, less so than ethanol, and more so than the higher (longer carbon chain) alcohols. Like most alcohols, butanol is poisonous.
Contents


* 1 Uses
* 2 Production
* 3 See also
* 4 External links



Uses

Butanol sees use as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical and textile processes, as a paint thinner, as well as a component of hydraulic and brake fluids. It is also used as a base for perfumes, but on its own has a highly alcoholic aroma.

Butanol may also be used as a direct fuel in any standard internal combustion engine engineered for gasoline usage (such as a modern automobile). Butanol is reported to yield 36,000 kJ/kg (15,500 BTU/lb) when burned. This can be expressed volumetrically as 29,200 kJ/l (104,800 BTU/US gal).

Butanol is occasionally used as a fuel for the sport of fire-dancing. It is only suitable for outdoor performances as when the fumes are contained in a room the stench is unbearable for audience members. It is however, all right to use butanol for outside performances. It makes a good display when paired with kerosene. (see 'Kerosene' article)


Production

Butanol can be produced by fermentation of biomass with the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum, also known as the Weizmann organism, as it was Chaim Weizmann who first used this bacteria for the production of acetone from starch to make TNT in 1916. The butanol was a side effect of this fermentation (twice as much butanol was produced). The process also creates a recoverable amount of H2.

Most butanol consumed in the United States is currently produced commercially by derivative from fossil fuels. However, a recent advance in fermentation tecniques may change the feedstock of butanol in America from petrochemical to biomass in the coming years. David Ramey of Ohio and his company, Environmental Energy, inc. have developed a two stage fermentation process.

In this process, biomass feedstock is first fed to the bacteria Clostridium tyrobutyricum, where a large percentage is converted into butyric acid and hydrogen. In the second process, the butyric acid is fed to the bacteria Clostridium acetobutylicum, where it is converted into butanol. Ramey has claimed a 42% butanol yield from this process.

Comparitively, in Ramey's process, a bushel of corn (maize) produces 2.5 US gallons (370 l/Mg), as opposed to 1.3 US gallons per bushel (190 l/Mg)in a traditional fermitive process. At 2.5 US gallons per bushel, Ramey's process produces a comparable amount of butanol to ethanol produced from a bushel of corn in its traditional fermentative process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butanol

pnorman

[MelissaB]

6. Thank you for the info!

:hi:

[NickB79]

8. Equal volume yields of butanol vs. ethanol, but butanol has more energy

Ethanol yields 29690 kJ/kg, while butanol yields 36,000 kJ/kg. If butanol were to be used instead of ethanol, you could produce noticably more fuel per bushel of corn.

[Pool Hall Ace]

9. Oooh, great read.

Thank you for posting! :hi: