Biobutanol won't displace US ethanol - DuPont

11 October 2006 18:45  [Source: ICIS news]

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (ICIS news)--The start of US biobutanol production in 2007 will not sound a death knell for the ethanol industry because markets for both will continue to grow, DuPont chairman and chief executive Charles Holliday said on Wednesday.

Like ethanol, biobutanol is an alcohol, produced through fermentation of farm crops, that can be used as a gasoline component. DuPont plans to start its commercial production of biobutanol next year, and intends to ramp up output using second-tier technology in 2010, Holliday said.

He did not give any estimates of the scale of production or the size of the investment, but said that biobutanol would be economically viable if crude oil remans above $30-40/bbl.

Biobutanol is relatively more expensive to make than ethanol but can be blended into gasoline at higher concentrations than the typical 10% for ethanol. Also, it has better characteristics when in contact with water, so it can be transported by pipeline - a disadvantage that ethanol faces in its distribution chains.

DuPont's biobutanol program is undertaken through a partnership with UK oil major BP. Holliday told the Advancing Renewable Fuels conference in St. Louis, Missouri that such corporate link-ups will be a hallmark of the bio-based markets now springing up.

With inventions such as bio-based hair dyes, dentals fillings and super glues already mushrooming, "it will take partnerships like we have never seen before" to exploit the new technologies, he said.

"The best ideas come from interaction with a variety of partners in the market place," Holliday said.

By: Stephen Burns
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