BP, DuPont unite to develop biofuels

20 June 2006 15:25  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--BP and DuPont said on Tuesday they would join forces to develop and produce biofuels for transportation and bring their first product, bio-butanol, to market in the UK in 2007.

The companies have been working together on biofuels since 2003. They said biobutanol has the potential to be blended into gasoline at larger concentrations than existing biofuels without the need to retrofit vehicles and offers better fuel economy.

“The two companies aim to be the world leaders in the development and production of advanced biofuels, driving the growth of biofuels, which today account for less than 2% of global transportation fuels,” the firms said.

Current projections show that biofuels could become a significant part of the transport fuel mix in the future – possibly up to 20-30% in key markets, they added.

BP and DuPont are working with British Sugar, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, to convert the country’s first ethanol fermentation facility to produce biobutanol.

Biobutanol will be produced at British Sugar's Wissington, Norfolk bioethanol plant which is currently under construction. The plant will be converted to produce 30,000 tonnes/year of biobutanol as a gasoline bio-component to be introduced to the market in 2007, BP and DuPont said.

Feasibility studies are underway into the construction of larger UK facilities should market conditions dictate, they said.

Initial production of biobutanol will be based on an existing technology to assist early market introduction but development work on a new technology process to produce biobutanol competitively with ethanol is already underway.

BP and DuPont said production planned to utilise a range of feedstocks such as sugar cane or beet, corn, wheat, or cassava and, in future, cellulosic feedstocks from fast-growing ‘energy crops’ such as grasses or agricultural by-products such as straw and corn stalks. 

Since production of biobutanol is similar to ethanol and uses similar feedstocks, existing ethanol capacity can be retrofitted to produce biobutanol, they added. 

By: Nigel Davis
+44 20 8652 3214

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