12
The Farmer ● December 2006
Machinery
Minnesota
NewsWatch
Firms produce new biofuel
By ROD SWOBODA
Key Points
OTORISTS may soon have another fuel choice, called biobutanol. It’s a type of alcohol that,
like ethanol, can be made from corn and
other crops. DuPont, parent company
of Des Moines, Iowa-based Pioneer HiBred International Inc. and the British
energy company BP, says they plan to
start producing butanol from sugarbeets at a small plant in England.
“Pioneer is pleased to play a role
■ DuPont and BP have teamed up to make
a new biofuel called biobutanol.
■ Biobutanol could be made from corn or
other crops, like ethanol is now.
■ The joint venture plans to begin selling
the alternative fuel in England in 2007.
M
in the BP and DuPont partnership to
develop, produce and market a next
generation of biofuels to help meet in-
creasing global demand for renewable
fuels,” says Dean Oestreich, Pioneer
president. DuPont and BP have a 5050 partnership on the project, working
with British Sugar PLC to convert the
English ethanol plant so it will become
the first plant to make biobutanol. They
expect to be making and selling the alternative fuel in England in 2007.
Eventually, biobutanol could be
made from U.S. corn, just like conventional ethanol is now. Butanol costs
more to make than ethanol, but cars
He said it
“The DuPont-BP
project is exciting
news for agriculture.
We believe biobutanol has advantages that will lead
to a higher use of
biofuels.”
Dean Oestreich,
Pioneer
would get better mileage on butanol,
says Oestreich. A gallon of butanol contains more energy than a gallon of ethanol. And unlike ethanol, butanol can
be blended with gasoline at the refinery
and shipped through pipelines.
BP and DuPont have been working together since 2003 to develop advanced
biofuels with properties that can help
overcome the limitations of ethanol.
That work has progressed to where they
are now able to bring the first jointly developed product to market.
“Butanol is simply another molecule
different than ethanol, but it’s also a
fuel,” he says. “We’ve found a way to
make the process more efficient and
economically viable. We can make
biobutanol from corn grain, wheat, sugarbeets, sugarcane, sorghum and, in the
future, we look forward to being able to
use cellulose-based crops as well, such
as cornstalks or switchgrass.”
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Oestreich stresses that biobutanol is
meant to complement and improve
upon the current ethanol fuel industry
rather than compete with it.
“To meet global demand for renewable energy, the market will need to
expand beyond existing biofuels technology,” he says. “Biobutanol will enhance the market for existing fuels,
including ethanol. This is a win-win all
the way through the system for biorenewables, including ethanol.”
Like most biofuels, biobutanol will
provide significant environmental benefits over petroleum-derived fuels, reducing overall environmental emissions
of greenhouse gases.
The initial project in England will be
small, producing only about 9 million
gallons a year because of higher production costs. DuPont officials say they
need to create a market for the fuel and
ensure that governments make biobutanol eligible for subsidies.
The United States subsidizes ethanol
at 51 cents per gallon. Butanol could
qualify for a 50-cent-per-gallon tax
credit that takes affect this fall for new
alternative fuels. DuPont and BP plan
to ramp up production of butanol by
2010 by bringing the refining cost in line
with ethanol. DuPont is also working to
develop a process for making alcohol
and chemicals from plant cellulose, like
cornstalks. That process could be used
to produce ethanol or butanol. DuPont
hopes to have a cellulosic alcohol refinery online by 2010, the same year
they intend to have the improved production process ready for biobutanol.
Conventional butanol is made from
petroleum and is used in the chemical
industry. DuPont isn’t disclosing how
much it costs to make biobutanol from
crops, but company sources say they
hope to bring the cost down to $30 to
$40 a barrel, similar to the cost of distilling corn-based ethanol.
Swoboda is a Farm Progress editor.