Butanol has been established as one of the better options for transport vehicle fuels. Butanol is not soluble in water and also has more energy content compared to ethanol.

The popular choice as raw material to make butanol are cane sugar and starch but experts at Aalto University made use of lignocellulose or more commonly known as wood biomass. This source can be considered as a better choice as it does not compete with human food needs and production.

Wood biomass consists of lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose as its basic substances. The first two substances are good sources of nutrition for the microbes and therefore bioprocessing is highly probable. When the biomass of wood is boiled in a mixture of sulphur dioxide, alcohol, and water, the substances of wood are separated. The cellulose portion can be used for paper, other products can be crafted from the non-cellulose part, and the hemicellulose is a good raw material for microbes to produce other chemicals.

By 2020, the European Union requires that all fuel should have 10% biofuel component. Butanol can be added to transportation fuel that we use today without the need to do a lot of modification to the ordinary combustion engine. The 20% butanol blend of fuel results to lower harmful emissions compared to ordinary fossil fuel.

Comparing the use of butanol with ethanol, the latter’s blend of fuel results to higher level of odor nuisances in the air. Experts look into the use of butanol in combo with a pulp plant in the biorefinery setup to improve energy use and production of biofuel.

The current project in the university in Finland is to improve the refining value of residues which normally cannot be further utilized.

Under the agreement, the two companies will be working hand in hand to deploy the technology of Cobalt which helps convert bagasse from sugar cane into n-butanol which can be used for fuels and chemicals. The initial options of the joint venture is to try the technology in sugar mills. After the initial phase of the project, Cobalt Technologies and partner company Rhodia will build a demonstration plant in Brazil to promote the technology. After the first site, the companies are looking into building several refineries located within sugar mills in Brazil and then move forward to other countries in the Latin America.

Cobalt Technologies sees the collaboration with Rhodia as a big opportunity to display their technology. They also see Rhodia as an ideal partner for this endeavor since Rhodia has a proven track record in operating in countries like Brazil. The latter also has a vast experience operating a power plant using bagasse from sugar cane. The international credibility of Rhodia is also beneficial for Coballt Technologies which aim to promote the technology across different countries in South America.

Rhodia, on the opposite end of the discussion table, sees the partnership as beneficial since the use of n-butanol from bagasse fits their development strategy.

There is an estimated $5 billion market for n-butanol which is widely used chemical found in surface coatings, lacquers, and paints. The market of n-butanol e is about eight times bigger than that for isobutanol.

The technology of Cobalt will give way to a low cost system that will further push n-butanol to the synthetic rubber and plastics market, plus its use for making jet fuel.

In the recent scientific study, the international group of scientists found a system of extracellular enzymes that occurs uniquely in the rot fungus species. This particular enzyme is believed to be a potential ingredient in the production of more cost-effective biofuels.

To be more specific, this particular enzyme system, according to the analysis, can work around the polymer lignin structures of the plant matter. Brown rot has the ability to effectively unbind, breakdown and ferment the sugar units in the plant matter.

In other words, with the help of brown rot, wood can be harnessed as distilled, liquid biofuel in the future.

Not a lot of organisms can breakdown the plant’s lignin into manageable chemical units for biofuel production. The lignin is part of the plant’s protective system that shields it from pests. One of the exceptions is the basidiommycete fungi, wood decayers that include white and brown rot.

Before this study, brown rot was considered a “pest” in the US timber industry, wreaking havoc on an economically significant number of timbers every year.

This recent study was conducted by no less than 50 authors from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL).

It was earlier reported on the online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) last February 4, 2009.

The estimate price has a 30% margin which will translate into a price between US$2.72 and $5.03 per gallon. The estimate price basing on a $100/ bbl of crude oil is $2.72/gallon before taxes.

Bioliq consists of three processes involving fast pyrolysis facility, a centralized gasification plant, and a fuel production factory.

Starting from a biomass, the raw material is pyrolyzed and converted into pyrolisis oil. This pyrolysis ou is processed with coke to create a raw biocrude which can be made into syngas or converted to other fuels components.

The core of the process involves a especially designed gasifier that operates on extreme pressure that helps in controlling the need and costs for syngas compression. This simplifies the process of syngas production since the process produces a raw material that is almost free of tar and CH4.

Feedstock flexibility is also improved with the design of the distributed FP. This will give way to large delivery areas and considerable decrease in the cost of transport.

Researchers though note that the complex technology may only be cost effective if done in large scale facilities. They also foresee the combination of the current synthetic fuels derived from natural gas and coal to be combined with the production of biosynfuel in very large facilities which will prove to be more economical.

To date, China is the second-biggest corn producer globally, next to the US. The US Department of Agriculture projects a 16.5 million metric tons produce from China this year. That amounts to at least 20.9% of the worlds total corn production.

The US, on the other hand, produces an average of 307.39 million tons of corn every year. This makes up for about 38.9% of the world’s total corn production.

China is also a big corn consumer overall: 72% of the country’s produce is used as feed; 20% as ingredients for biofuel, starch and sugar; and 1% are sold as food. The remaining 7% is either used as seed to replenish supply, or is amounted to harvest loss.

Novozymes, as a leader in technology, sees vast potential in China’s bioethanol production. They hope to be the first company to be prepared for large-scale production by 2010. The company has been associated with the development of conversion processes and advanced enzymes necessary for churning agricultural waste to second-generation bioethanol.

COFCO, on the other hand, is the leading producer and supplier of processed agricultural products in China.

With the two company’s partnership with Sinopec, the third-largest oil refiner in the world, this large-scale bioethanol production should be possible. Sinopec holds 60% of China’s refined-oil market.