Butanol Biofuel

I have just read that they are starting to use Butanol in the UK as an alternative to Ethanol and Petrol.

New British biofuel plan beets ethanol

Ben Webster, London

August 24, 2006

BRITISH drivers are to be offered a new fuel made from crops that will be less harmful to the environment - but there will be no need for them to modify their engines.

Sugar beet, grown in East Anglia in eastern England, will be fermented to produce butanol, which will be blended with petrol and sold at more than 1200 petrol stations.

The Government plans to accelerate the introduction of butanol and other biofuels by setting oil companies tough targets for producing renewable fuels, which have much less impact on the environment.

Ministers are considering doubling the target for biofuels from the current requirement for 5 per cent of all fuel sold by 2010 to 10 per cent by 2015.

Companies will pay a penalty for failing to hit the target.

The Energy Saving Trust, the British government-funded environmental body, said butanol was more promising than other biofuels, such as ethanol or biodiesel, because it did not rely on drivers buying special cars or spending hundreds of pounds adapting their engines.

Car manufacturers permit drivers to fill up with fuel that contains a maximum of 5 per cent biofuel and 95 per cent ordinary petrol or diesel. This is because of concerns that biofuels can corrode tubes and gaskets in engines. But butanol has a less corrosive effect than other biofuels, allowing suppliers to create a blend that contains only 80 per cent petrol. Butanol also has a much higher energy content than other biofuels.

Richard Tarboton, the trust's head of transport, said: "Butanol is a big step forward because motorists won't need to worry about what is going into the tank. They can fill up as normal."

British Sugar, which is building Britain's first butanol plant in Norfolk, eastern England, plans to produce 70 million litres of the fuel a year. Butanol is expected to be introduced in all 1250 BP petrol stations by 2010.

Phil New, BP's head of biofuels, said the Norfolk plant would use surplus sugar beet, which can no longer be sold abroad under EU rules.

He said Britain did not have enough spare land to supply all vehicles, but said BP was experimenting with other crops that could produce more of the fuel.

The Times

Now Australia could a leaf out of the UK's book and start developing plans and incentives to use biofuels. Australia has the opportunity to become a major player in the world energy market if we just start now and figure out our options and put some investment into it.