Calif Bill wrote:
"tillius" wrote in message
oups.com...
Also, I've looked for the past week at the effects and up/downsides of
Ethanol vs. Butanol. This thread was one of the last things I did
searching for my answers.

I am still seeking downsides to butanol, but again, aside from the odor
during production and the possible hard starts in cold wheather with a
95 degree flashpoint, and the toxicity (not more toxic than gasoline,
however), the only other con I can find was it's high cost of
production. The new processes using fibrous fermentation beds have
changed the cost of production ($1.05 - $1.25/gallon using corn
feedstock) AND yeilds per bushel of feedstock to the same as ethanol,
only with higher energy yeild per gallon of fuel.

Using a feedstock such as dairy waste from cheese manufacturing reduces
the production cost per gallon of butanol to approximately $0.50 per
gallon.

Again, if you know of links to more downside information on butanol,
please let me know. I'm considering forming a co-op to investigate
butanol production for the personal use of co-op members in my area.

Till


The downside of ethanol, butanol or any other manufactured from grown crops
fuel, is that there is not going to be enough of the stuff. Would take just
about all our present food grown to provide our present fuel usage.

I understand the quantity of feedstock it would take to supply our
present fuel usage with bio-fuels, however, there are several points
that should be considered:

1. Using these newer fermentation methods, butanol (or ehtanol) can be
produced from waste agri-products, such as rice straw, corn stalks,
sawdust, and the dairy waste from cheese production.

2. Bio-fuels can be produced from crops such as Jatropha (yeilding 200
gallons per acre), Coconut (300 gals/acre), and Palm (600 gals/acre).
All of these crops can be grown in arid regions where the current
agricultural footprint is very small.

3. Over 60% of the US corn crop is low quality Bt corn, which has
hardly any market value and which is usually discarded (at tax payers
expense) into inefficient ethanol production, or dumped into 3rd world
countries as sub-par livestock feed.

4. Over 40% of our farmland is currenly unfarmed. Thanks to well
intentioned governement subsidies that actually pay the farmers not to
produce certain crops, we are wasting a vast portion of our natural
resources.

The feedstock to supply our energy needs with bio-fuel could easily be
produced by putting our agricultural industries back to work, while at
the same time reducing their dependancy upon government subsidies AND
reducing out tax burden.

Till