ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), Taiwan’s largest and a leading international high-tech applied research institution, recently introduced ButyFix, reportedly the first biochemical technology for bio-butanol transportation fuel production with a negative carbon footprint. The technology uses nature’s most abundant biomass—cellulose—as its feedstock, rather than corn. The total energy content in the lignin-rich biomass has the surplus to cover not only the energy for production, but also for the entire lifecycle of the fuel (well-to-wheel). As a result, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of the bio-butanol is slightly negative, which is thus very positive for the environment. ButyFix is available for licensing to biofuel and chemical processing organizations.
ButyFix technology can produce bio-butanol with GHG emission reduction of over 100%, much higher than the currently available corn ethanol with a GHG reduction of approximately 23%. If the U.S. replaced corn ethanol with ButyFix butanol based on today’s ethanol consumption of 13 billion gal, it could reportedly further reduce CO2 emissions in the U.S. by 90 million tons a year. Furthermore, butanol produced using ButyFix is the only biofuel that can achieve a transportation-fuel price of $2/gal—well below the current price of gasoline and bio-ethanol—and it requires no government subsidies.
ButyFix bio-butanol can be used to retrofit existing ethanol plants, as a drop-in fuel (surpassing ethanol with its higher heating value), and is reportedly more compatible with current gasoline engines and existing gasoline infrastructure. It can be blended with gasoline to double the current amount of ethanol usage without modification of existing automotive engines. It also can be blended into gasoline in conventional pipelines without corrosion or other water–related issues associated with ethanol blending. It could allow refiners to more quickly meet the EPA’s renewable fuel standards, which mandate that transportation fuels contain increasing amounts of alternative fuels over time.
Although primarily designed as a technology for producing bio-butanol for transportation fuel, ButyFix also has potential applications in the industrial chemical market. For example, the material provides a new technology for synthesizing lower carbon chemicals into higher carbon chemical compounds in an effective manner, creating an easy way to synthesize chemical compounds. Other potential applications include chemical agents, raw materials, intermediates, or solvents for the production of paints, adhesives, and detergents. The use of ButyFix bio-butanol as a raw material to derive butyl acrylate is especially promising, because this important chemical is currently mostly derived from petroleum, and ButyFix can improve the environmental impact over petroleum as a green technology.