[Bioconversion] Butanol

[Jeff Davis]

Dear List,


An article about butanol. It was written by Patrick Ward.
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/Renewable_Energy_Ontario/message/70?viscount=100


Jeff



****************************



You really Can Make Your Own Biomass Biogasoline!
Or
"As Strange As It Sounds, You Too Could Be Driving Around In A
CheeseMobile™"

No, I am not connected to David Ramey or his businesses (EEI or
ChemLac Corporation) in any way!
I am not affiliated with them, but they are certainly into something
really cool.

Everybody listen up!

David Ramey's companies and their patents, do not prevent anyone from
making Biogasoline now!
True, they have done some very good work in the field, and have been
rewarded and awarded under Article 1, Section 8 of the US
Constitution" A Grant Of Letters Patent" on a genetically altered
bacteria, and also a new patent, on a newer and even more efficient
fermentation process.
That does not mean that you are prevented by patent law from making
your own Butanol/other higher alcohols/Ethanol blend of Biogasoline
using anaerobic fermentation of biomass!
Indeed, that is just what the founding fathers (and mothers)
envisioned when they allowed by a "Grant of Letters Patent, " (the
exclusive right to license to manufacture) for just 17years " (since
extended to just twenty years by the WTO treaty)
This short, exclusive right to use a new use a new innovation or
process, is the sole reward given to innovators and inventors
a
reward for agreeing to "give it to the world" at the end of the 17-20
year exclusive use period.
The "prior art,' that is to say "the basic processes" is as old as
Louis Pasteur and was used 100 years ago, to do this sort of
fermentation.
The use of anaerobes to make Biogasoline or a Butanol-Ethanol mixture
of 10-15% Ethanol is over a century old!
Those older patents expired when your grandpa was still in baby
diapers!

I believe that the commencement of a cottage Butanol-based biomass
Biogasoline industry, to parallel the fledgling BioDiesel industry is
way (or should I say whey) overdue!

It would create an interesting fleet of CheeseMobiles to promote the
very concept of biomass Biogasoline, in the mind of the public at
large worldwide!

.It would create just the sort of media buzz and top-of-mind
awareness (especially at the gas pump) needed to force to politicians
to break ranks with the oligarchy(sic).

It would also give David Ramey's pioneering efforts to revive the
long-moribund biomass-Butanol fuel and solvent industry a sorely
needed shot in the arm.

The way I see it, the cottage BioDiesel industry really needs to
grow, and grow now, to encompass Biogasoline to get the wide
acceptance and funding biomass fuels really need.

Biogasoline needs more pioneers like Davis Ramey.

Are you one of them?

And David Ramey should welcome the formation, of an emerging cottage
biomass Biogasoline industry, because the need is so great, and the
payback so huge, for encouraging legions of disciples, working in
tandem, to innovate, and improvise, to improve processes, and
process yields; and to develop new and innovative biomass feedstock
sources and resources.

I do not speak for David Ramey

That said, I do believe that David Ramey would encourage this
approach too.

Perhaps he would even allow the licensed use of his patented microbes
to assist such innovators, since it is in the interests of his
companies and it's shareholders to do so.

Having legions of supporters, actually already making, and using,
their own home-spun biomass Biogasoline, in all sorts of places, and
geographical locations, gives far more political clout, when lobbying
for funding, for pilot- plant DOE grant seed money.

Ramey has been doing such lobbying for several years with only
limited success.

He has been trying desperately to raise a mere 3 million dollars of
seed grant money to build a pilot biomass Butanaol fermentation
plant, without much political support!

Clearly the Oiligarchy (sic) is obstructing David Ramey's efforts,
just to continue the status-quo, and protect, and to continue the
huge oil company's wind-fall profits, due to OPEC's price fixing and
the oil spot market's manipulation by sellers, posing as shill
futures-trading bidders.

Do you see any oil companies at all, actually funding David Ramey's
biomass Butanol gasoline substitutes, with any of those huge new
windfall profits that they now claim they need to keep, to "Reinvest,
to discover New Future Energy Supplies?"

Would you ever imagine, that THAT sort of funding could be a good
thing, should it ever materialize?

Would you really like to see the oil companies, become the ones to
provide that much needed funding?

Before you say "yes" and let THEM make David Ramey an offer he cant
refuse, and simply buy out/off Ramey and squelch the new Biogasoline
process, consider this;

David Ramey has been stoically resisting such offers!

I think that makes him a true patriot!

For all the reasons why, you need only to consider the fate of The
Off-Grid Solarex Solar Cell Breeder Plant founded in 1982, in
Frederick MD, by another couple of alternative energy visionaries,
who were also way ahead of their time, and could find no other viable
financial support.

To recoup their investment, they were forced to sell-out to the
Oiliarchy(sic), who then, let the likes of Enron pick their bones
clean, like the vultures they were.

I have included that sordid "History of The Solarex Breeder Plant"
[1] at the end of this article in the "Lessons Learned" section.

I would urge all readers to inspect the history of the Solarex Solar
Breeder and then ask yourselves "would a similar fate for BioDiesel
and Biogasoline be ok with me?

If the answer is no, then I would further urge to give your full
support to Biogasoline and BioDiesel as cottage industries, and in
particular I urge the development of the cottage Biogasoline from
cheese milk, and corn mash, and biomass, in support of David Ramey's
pioneering efforts to revive the moribund biomass biogasoine and
bioButanol industries.

There is only ONE logical reason that the US DOE does not even bother
to list Butanol as an alternative Biomass fuel option, despite the
long pre-petroleum age industrial production history!

Of course the American public has been deemed unworthy to know,
exactly what the American energy policy really is, since the official
records of that infamous March 2001 private meeting, with the
Oiligarchy(sic) has been declared private by a Federal Court, and
placed out of bounds for American's public realm of knowledge
(formerly known as "American History").

No, I do not speak for David Ramey, but I thank him for his
service to America, both as a submariner in the Cold War, and now as
a tireless advocate for non-tertiary Butanol as a viable biomass
alternative to gasoline.

I believe that I am doing David Ramey a service, as a
detached and independent advocate.

Nobody likes a shameless self-promoter.

I get the feeling that David Ramey is admirably reluctant to promote
his own successes, and that could be holding back the full, and
widespread understanding of how important his work really is.

I would urge everyone, to jump onto David Ramey's Bandwagon, and
begin to explore how you can make your own biomass gasoline
replacement now!

You already are making a difference with your interest in BioDiesel.

Now you have an opportunity to help to liberate the 95%, or more, of
the people who are not now driving diesel powered vehicles!

The historical reason that the traditional biomass fermentation
Butanol production process was abandoned, was that, when the US CIA,
installed the Shah of Iran, in the early 1950's, oil prices got so
cheap that petroleum feed-stocks simply displaced, and thus
eventually replaced biomass Butanol production, for politically-
skewed economic reasons.
We ineptly destroyed some of our own valuable industries by altering
the world's oil economies, by simply installing a hand-picked
dictator.

That was hardly a shining example, of free-market economics.

The petroleum based version of Butanol is way different, with a large
portion of Tert-Butanol (which does not ever even get produced by
biomass fermentation processes)!

The petroleum based Tert –Butanol isomer freezes easily (at room
temperature) and does not give good low temperature performance when
used as a gasoline fuel replacement.
So great care must be used when comparing petroleum-based Butanol's
characteristics to biomass fermentation-based Butanol, since that
fermentation lacks the needed enzymes and thus produces no Tert-
Butanol!

Modern texts now just assume low-grade petroleum-based Tert-Butanol
is in the mixture of Butanol isomers.

No matter, cheap petroleum based gasoline made the need for biomass
fuels go away
until now!

To see how old this technology really is go to:

http://Butanol.com/docs/AB%20Revisited.pdf
http://Butanol.com/docs/SciAm_7-27.doc



Two subjects almost merged in the last few discussions
on "wastewatts at yahoogroups.com, in March of 2006, but then failed to
quite congeal and converge.

They are "can rancid oil still be used to make BioDiesel fuel?,"
and "is the fuel heating content of Ethanol equivalent to gasoline?"

I just cannot bear to let this discussion come so close, but then
diverge, because THIS STUFF is really important!

Speaking of "hot Flashes," here's one for you:

The very small carboxylic acids have a sharp odor. (Formic acid has
an odor that is even sharper than acetic acid.) By the time the
hydrocarbon chain has grown to a total of four carbon atoms, the odor
of these compounds has taken a significant turn for the worse.
(Butyric acid is the source of the characteristic odor of rancid
butter or spoiled meat.) (Get it Butyric acid 
.Butter
. indeed the
very name!)
As the length of the hydrocarbon chain in the carbolic acids
increases further, the odor of the acid changes once again this
time, becoming more pleasant
Rancidity is caused by the bacteria Clostridium
tyrobutyricum, the anaerobe that has for centuries, caused spoiled
cheese, and even occasionally causes Blow-Outs" in cheese wheels!,
You can feed that rancidity, which is really the smell of butyric
acid, the waste product of Clostridium tyrobutyricum to an entirely
different bacteria as it's food!
That bacteria is bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum, which has been
used for over a century to make acetone, an ingredient used to make
TNT and paints!
By first fermenting biomass with one bacteria to make bio-butyric
acid, and then feeding the bio-butyric acid to Clostdidium
Acetobuylticum youcan also get Biogasoline as an end product!
That is a natural process that has gone on for millions of years!
It is in the "prior art."
The butyric acid waste eventually builds up and kills off the
Clostridium tyrobutyricum unless it gets removed somehow.
If it is somehow efficiently extracted and then fed to the second
anaerobe, then the process continues until the second anaerobe is
becoming poisoned by acidic Ethanol and acetone metabolites.
BUT THEN a truly amazing thing happens!.
TO PROTECT ITSELF FROM ACIDIC DEMISE, Clostridium acetobutylicum
actually ALTERS ITS VERY METABOLISM and raises the acidic broth PH!
Yes, to save itself from oblivion, the second anaerobe CHANGES its
metabolism completely and begins to produce Butanol or "Biogasoline"
If that Biogasoline Butanol is then also somehow extracted as fast as
it is produced, then Biogasoline production remains unimpeded by a
build-up of Butanol. This allows, the Clostridium acetobutylicum to
continue to make more Biogasoline as long as new butyric acid is fed
to the metabolically altered Clostridium acetoutyliceum anaerobic
bacteria..
So if you just keep feeding your various anaerobes, and automatically
remove theirwaste products, then they just keep making you
Biogasoline as you go about your daily business!
So, what constitutes an inexpensive anaerobe chow?
Recall the free French Fry grease behind the McDonalds that is the
folksy-lore underpinning of BioDiesel cottage-industry movement?
Well, here is the Biogasoline parallel!
Here also is where that CheeseMobile comes in!
Turns out that dry cheese whey has a value of 16-28 cents per pound
($16.00-$28.00 per hundred weight) at a cheese plant.
But it costs 18 cents or so depending on natural gas prices to dry
it. So the value to a cheese maker is as little as-2 cents a pound -
$2.00 to + $26.00 per hundred weight!
If you are willing to drive a truck with a tank of some kind, (bear
in mind that this absolutely must be one of those Butanol Biogsoline
or cheese butter-fat BioDiesel-powered CheeseMobile trucks!) to a
cheese plant, and ask for the cheese milk, (which is the liquid left
from making cheese, that often still contains the butter-fat left
over from cheese making).
You can quite likely purchase that cheap, or even get it free,
depending on how much energy the plant uses to dry it, or how much it
pays the local sewer plant to dump it down the drain.
The butterfat-laden cheese milk can then be used to make both
BioDiesel and Biogasoline.
You just separate the butter-fat and use it to make BioDiesel.
The "defatted cheese-milk is normally dried at the cheese plant using
expensive natural gas and then sold, often at a loss as "No. 4 Dry
Whey Solids."
If you take the defatted cheese milk, you save the cheese plant the
cost of the natural gas used for whey drying prior to disposa!
Like I said
just keep on removing those waste products, and then go
about your business
and get free Biogasoline!
Perhaps they will give you that cheese-milk free if you just haul it
away, to make Biogasoline as the free feedstock for the Clostridium
tyrobutyricum to convert to butyric acid.
If you are lucky, they will be so delighted to get rid of the cheese-
milk that they will throw in the butterfat laden cheese milk before
de-fatting, as well, and let you have the cheese-milk without
removing the butterfat first. Then you have a mixture of future
BioDiesel and future Biogasoline.
(NOTE: Some cheese manufacturers re-use the butterfat they separate
from the cheese- milk by incorporating it into subsequent batches of
cheese. This gets rid of it, but yields inferior cheese more prone to
spoilage! Many cheese manufacturers including Kraft Foods claim to
never recycle cheese-milk butter-fat into subsequent batches of their
cheese. So beware, The issue of cheese-milk butterfat re-use could
be a touchy subject with some less reputable cheese manufacturers.
This is especially true if they are asserting to dairy milk source
providers that they do not re-use the cheese-milk butterfat [for
financial milk-fat supplier pricing credits reasons] when in fact,
they really do re-use the cheese-milk butter-fat )
When you feed defatted (cooled and the butterfat skimmed off) cheese
milk (in other words, liquid whey solution) to Clostridium
tyrobutyricum, the anaerobe thinks it is seventh heaven!
To Clostridium tyrobutyricum, liquid cheese whey broth, at a human's
body temperatures is absolutely the perfect food.
At 98.6 degrees F optimum temperature under anaerobic conditions,
Clostridium tyrobutyricum proceeds to efficiently churn cheese milk
into butyric acid.
If the butter fat comes with the cheese milk, you simply cool it to
make the fat solid, and then strain the fat out of the cheese-milk.
then use the butterfat thawed to make BioDiesel as usual.
The butterfat absolutely needs to be removed in any event because it
will poison the Biogasoline fermentation process for making butyric
acid, which neither needs nor wants any fats!
So there is a very natural, and very symbiotic synergy, between the
fat craving BioDiesel process and the fat-shunning Biogasoline
aerobic fermentation process.
The synergy between cottage industry biodisel production and
cottage industry Biogasoline production becomes even more profound
when you realize what a great minor ingredient additive the
fermentation-produced Butalol isomers are, for lowering the useful
operating temperature range for BioDiesel..
Unlike petroleum based Butanol isomers, fermentative Butanol isomers
always keep the BioDiesel thiner at lower temperatures without
severely lowering the lubricity as the lighter Ethanol or mEthanol
will.
In fact, Butanol can replace some or all of the methyl alcohol
normally used in the trans-esterification process for making
BioDiesel. Chemically, BioDiesel comprises a mix of mono-alkyl-esters
of long chain fatty acids
The most common form of BioDiesel uses metanol to produce mono-methyl
esters as it is the cheapest alcohol available, though Ethanol can be
used to produce a mono ethyl-ester BioDiesel and higher alcohols such
as isopropanol and Butanol have also been used. Using alcohols of
higher molecular weights improves the cold flow properties of the
resulting ester, (at the cost of a less efficient transesterification
reaction).
So some fraction of BioDiesel made with mono-Butyl esters can be
added improve the cold flow characterisics of any BioDiesel fuels
made with either mEthanol or Ethanol for cold weather usage!
The two processes, BioDiesel and Biogasoline, share common biomass
feed-stocks, but always use the opposite fractions!
This holds true for corn, soybeans oil-palm fruit, ginko-fruit (which
like cheese milk is a rich feedstock for Biogasoline), canola seed,
sunflower seed,algae, or any other vegetable oil producing crop as
well as for animal by-product feed-stocks like cheese-milk.
In every case the oils go to BioDiesel and the left over mash or
water-soluble fraction goes to Biogasoline fermentation.
Additional water must usually be added to most vegetable or fruit
mashes, and in some cases to cheese milk; certainly to No 4 dry
cheese whey.
That means some of that that added water is actually being converted
to biofuels in the fermentation process!
The Biogasoline fermentation will be poisoned by too much Butanol.
To prevent this, excessive Butanol Biogasoline fuel buildup in the
fermentation mash, the Butanol must be some how, continuously removed
from the dilute water-based fermenttion broth and concentrated
elsewhere.
Much of the innovation required for producing Butanol as a
Biogasoline fuel is centered around how to do he extracting, and
concentration of the Butanol without using the brute force and energy
intensive traditional methods involving pure distillation.
Pure distillation alone simply requires too much fuel for heating and
boiling off the fermentation process water.
Far too much added energy is needed to boil off all that fermentation
process water just to concentrate the Butanol.
That gives rise to a real danger that there could be a net energy
loss, in that more energy is required to produce the fuel than the
fuel contains.
In fact almost all the so-called studies I have ever seen (generally
paid for and promoted and distriuted by paid oil company spokesmen)
just assume that all the biofuel's concentration and refining would
be done with extremely wasteful brute force distillation
just like an
oil company would do. Then the so called study goes on to claim that
all biomass fuels MUST be produced with a net energy loss!
To avoid this pitfall, we must become quite clever and use low energy
concentration methods until we have concentrated enough of a higher
concentration of Butanol to allow some small amount to final product
drying by distillation, without needing too boil away much water at
all!
This can be accomplished by concentrating the Butanol in an
adsorbent material like activated carbon, zeolites, or molecular
sieve, or diatomaceous earth.
By simple absorption and concentration, much wasted distillation
energy use can be avoided!
Alternatively or in tandem with adsorption, a process called
pervaporation can be employed. This uses the fact that water is a
highly polar (ionic electrically charged) molecule while Butanol is
not polar.
Ever noticed how a polypropylene rope never really gets wet?
Water never even wets polypropylene, and instead, it just beads up

and rolls right off it!
The reason is simple!
Polypropylene on a molecular level, is hydrophobic.
No, it does not have rabies!
By using a special hydrophobic(water-hating) membrane made of treated
polypropylene, we can allow the butranol to pass right through the
thin semi-permeable membrane , along with acetone, Ethanol and
hydrogen gas and other non-polar while the hygrophobic membrane
refuses to let the water from leave the fermentation bio-reactor.
By simply co-concentrating the non-polar fermentation waste products,
we can just leave the water-soluble mash components behind.
This separation method is called pervaporation, because it combines
evaporation and permeation in a single low-energy process that avoids
the high energy input needed for wasteful thermal distillation
If we can do this, then we can greatly ease the input energy needed
to separate them from the fermentation process water. This nearly
avoids the water distillation all together.
(Are you still paying attention, BioDieselers?
Pervaporation can also be used to efficiently extract moisture from
finished, washed BioDiesel without using long (several weeks) drying
cycles or high energy consumption!
Pervaporation could also be used in the BioDiesel process for excess
mEthanol or Ethanol recovery or impurity removal, without needing to
resort to heating the oil or glycerin by-product to a very high
temperature! It could also be used to remove the propylene glycol
fraction when converting the glycerin by-product to salable
antifreeze or for purifying and clarifying the glycerin to increase
the resale value )
Additional pervaporaton membranes can then be used to remove and
separate the pure hydrogen , and the liquid acetone and Ethanol from
each other to get separate. and pure Butanol, Ethanol, and acetone
(which is really "ethyl acetyl ketone"). Additional low energy
refining steps can then be employed to convert acetone back into
Ethanol by reacting the hydrogen gas with the acetone in a specially
designed fuel cell to make electricity and Ethanol from the hydrogen
and acetone fuels.
Finally, the newly-made fuel cell Ethanol and the previously
fermented Ethanol then be combined and then can be catalytically and
molecularly stitched together by self-condensation, and made into
additional Butanol biogasolene.
So the ultimate result of the low energy post-fermentation refining
process is (by combining, reacting and reforming the various
fermentation process waste by-products)
1) The production of up to 100% pure biomass Butanol
Biogasoline,
2) The safe, immediate disposal of the hydrogen reactor process
gas, without any need to store the hydrogen,
3) by immediate conversion to electricity the generation of some
electrical energy equivalent to about 80% of the heat content of the
hydrogen gas produced in the fermentation processes, (a very useful
commodity frequently used to turn electric meters backwards for a
profit!)
4) as well as some thermal waste heat that can be fed back into
the fermentation reactor to maintain the 98.6 degrees F process heat
needed to optimize the fermentation process reactor.
5) Near zero or up to a lesser and controllable amount of
acetone and/or Ethanol for solvent or fuel additive usage.
So it should be clear by now that the BioDiesel and Biogasoline
production methods are mutually synergistic.
Since they share such common complementary feed-stock fractions, the
development of energy-efficient small scale manufacturing processes
and methodologies, could become richly rewarding and liberating to
many individuals by allowing them to create a viable biomass
alternative energy transportations fuels technology that could be
integrated into personal energy independence strategy.
Other alternative energy sources such as wind and solar which are
inherently intermittent in nature, could be used to drive and
maintain both Biogasoline and BioDiesel biomass refining processes on
an as energy becomes available basis.
Meanwhile, the constant self-sustaining of the operation of the
biogas fermentation reactors could produce sufficient and steady-
state hydrogen production to allow the maintenance of process heat to
allow continuous fermentation process and vessel-heating to allow
those processes to continue around-the-clock even at night and on
windless days.
The actual energy intensive refining and minimal distillation
portions could then be done on an "as the wind blows" and "as the sun
shines" basis.
Mutual alternative energy resource and process energy synergy between
small scale BioDiesel and Biogassoline production could thereby be
achieved as well!





Wikipedia
Butanol
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
(also sec-Butanol)

isobutyl alcohol CH3-CH-CH3
|
CH2OH

OH
|
tert-butyl alcohol CH3-C-CH3
(also t-Butanol) |
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.
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).
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.
Comparatively, 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 fermentive process. At 2.5 US gallons per
bushel, Ramey's anaerobic fermentation process produces a comparable
volume of Butanol as compared to the same volume of Ethanol produced
from a bushel of corn in the traditional fermentative process.
END OF WIKIPEDIA
Think of it like little anaerobes, hard at work for you, day in and
day out just stitching two Ethanol molecules into one giant, more
powerful Butanol molecule.
Biogasoline is a mixture of the three of Butanol's fopur common
isomers shown above. Luckily, the bacteria do not produce the Tert-
Butanol because its molectular structure is foreigh n to their enzyme
activities. That a good thing too, since the melting point of Tert-
Butanol is too high for cold weather driving.
BUTANOL'S ISOMERS
ISOMER BP DRY POINT FREEZING POINT
1 BUTANOL PB 118.0 °C DP 118.0 °C Freezing
point -89 °C
2-BUTANOL BP 98.5 °C DP 100.5 °C Freezing
point –115 °C
TERT-BUTANOL BP 81.5°C DP 83.0°C Freezing
point + 25 °C
ISO-BUTANOL BP 107.9°C DP 107.9°C Freezing
point -108°C


Butanol has a calorific value (heating value) higher than Ethanol,
which makes it a superior fuel. A gallon of Ethanol contains 84,800
BTU's, a gallon of gasoline contains 115,000 BTU"s, and a gallon od
mixed 1-Butanol,, 2-Butanol, and Iso-Butanol contains 104,500 BTU's.
However the Butanol burns far more completely and produces far less
CO or unburned hydrocarbons than gasoline does, thus producing less
smog and equivalent power!
Most autos are designed for a lean burn to control emissions.
Gasoline is a highly variable product, that contains differing
amounts of the various alkynes, and aromatic hydrocarbons known
as "petroleum distillates" at different times of the year.
For a very lean burn, an internal combustion engine running on
gasoline may need as much as 15 times as much air as fuel for the
oxygen sensor to read a complete optimum burn for minimal air
pollution.
For some really high quality and very clean burning gasolines, the
clean fuel burn could require as a stoichiometric burn mixture of as
little as 12 times as much air as gasoline.
Butanol, Biogasoline has nearly the equivalent of gasoline's energy
content in terms of heat value (Butanol is a VERY CONSISTANT 104,000
BTU's per gallon heat value, compared to gasoline's 115,000BTU's per
gallon AVERAGE heat value ie: could be 100,000-130,000btu's per
gallon)
Gasoline is far more volatile and thus evaporates almost as fast as
mEthanol with its high Reid vapor pressure of 4.5. that means
gasoline often looses a lot of its heating value just sitting in the
gas tank! So it is certainly not uncommon to have gasoline with less
heating value than Butanol sitting in the tank.
Gas powered fuel injected vehicles must be designed to compensate for
such older gasoline they do so by allowing the air mixture to be
richer for older gas. With older gas in the tank, air-to-gas ratio
may drop below 10 units of gas for each unit of fuel. The oxygen
sensor and computer detects the amount of extra gas needed to get
the desired RPMS and power curve and simply adjusts the mixture
accordingly, to burn ff the older gas.
So the gasoline fuel-injected vehicle is already designed to allow
operation at less that 10 part of air to one part of fuel, when lower
heating value fuel exists!
Since Butanol contains none of the aromatic hydrocarbons that require
the burning of at least six units of carbon per molecule, less air is
required for a cleaner burn than even the cleanest available gasoline
mixture!
Yet the heat content of Butanol Biogasoline is very nearly the same
per gallon as for gasoline.
So Butanol Biogasoline, when burned just a little richer than
gasoline's low end air mixture range (of 12 units of air per unit
fuel ) actually burns much cleaner and "leaner" than gasoline ever
can.
With a stoichiometric optimum ratio of 11.1 parts of air per one part
of biomass produced Butanol Biogasoline, the mixture is only slightly
richer than with petroleum gasoline.
The richer mixture means extra power, and that means you can
throttle back and get both better mileage and better performance from
a constant, and unchanging, and cleaner burn at a mixture ratio well
within the design range for the vehicle's computer and fuel injection
system..
There is far less mixture variation due to the complete lack of fuel
composition variations, with the seasons, or with refinery petroleum
feed-stocks because biomass based Butanol Biogasoline burns so clean,
all year-round that there is no need to reformulate the Biogasoline
on a seasonal basis as is routinely done for dirty petroleum based
gasoline mixtures.

Butanol is also much less corrosive on metal parts, and unlike
Ethanol,can be distributed through existing pipelines. Butanol can be
used as a direct one-to-one replacement for gasoline with no
modifications to your car today.
At last a true Biogasoline that directly replaces gasoline, has
equivalent energy content, and runs cleaner in your car with far less
smog, CO but better octane and equivalent pep!

-- 
Jeff Davis

Some where 20 miles south of Lake Erie, USA