Biobutanol : The Second Generation of Alternative Fuel for The Future

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Dear Stemians, today I would like to share my article about one of the alternative fuels for the future, namely Biobutanol. I think, it is very important for anyone to find a new alternative fuel for the survival of living things on this planet. Because the availability of old fuel such as gasoline that is formed from fossil is very rare today. Even to fight for fuel sources from fossils has led to wars between countries today. In addition, the use of fossil fuels has also led to very serious environmental problems such as air pollution caused by Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, Sulfur Dioxide and Trioxide ^[1]. generated from burning fossil fuels. Therefore, one of the more environmentally friendly alternative fuels for the future is Biobutanol.

Biobutanol

^{www.wikipedia.org}

Butanol is one type of alcohol consisting of 4 carbon, or commonly called butyl alcohol. The physical form of butanol and its smell is very similar to ethanol (a 2-alcohol carbon). Basically, butanol is produced by using fossil fuels and used as a solvent of paints, resins and polymers ^[2]. However, the butanol can also be produced by using biomass from agricultural waste and alcohol waste that produces a fuel called Biobutanol.

CH4H9OH

Biobutanol is considered as the second generation biofuel where raw material does not come from food such as bioetanol (using corn starch and sugar as raw material). The main ingredients of biobutanol are the result of food crops such as rice stalks, corn stalks, sugar cane sticks and waste paper. Thus, in producing biobutanol will not create a food crisis for humans.

The Process of Biobutunol Production

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According Kaminski (2011),^[3] biobutanol can be produced by fermentation using bacteria Clostridium Acetobutylicum. The process of fermentation using this bacteria is better known as ABE which stands for Asetol-Butanol-Ethanol. The compound ration used in the fermentation process is 3: 6: 1, wherein the concentration of butanol is 3 percent.

Due to the high cost of biobutanol production in the past decade, researchers are now researching new ways to mass-produce biobutanol through the biomass process. One way is to use raw materials containing monosacchides, polysarida and glycerol. The three raw materials can be processed from algae. The use of algae such as Chlorella contains higher sugar which can emphasize the cost of biobutanol production.,^[4]

The Comparison between Biobutanol and Other Fuels

The table below shows the energy content of butanol with other fuels:

^{Source : Fuels and Lubes International}

From the above table we can see that butanol (110,000 ) has a higher energy content of ethanol (55,600). This means that if using ethanol will require more energy if doing the same journey with butanol use. Therefore, the use of butanol as an alternative to fossil fuel takes precedence over other biofuels.

While on the other hand, we can also see that biobutanol provides more benefits than other biofuels. One of them, biobutanol possesses high energy combustion (29.2) and lower vapor pressure (0.43) compared with ethanol having low energy combustion (19.6) and higher vapor pressure (0.92). From both findings we know that the use of biobutanol as an alternative biofuel is more suitable than bioethanol. Furthermore, it can be seen from the table below about the benefits of biobutanol as an alternative to fossil fuels:

^{Source : Kaminski et al (2011)}

Conclusion

Butanol is one type of alcohol consisting of 4 carbon, or commonly called butyl alcohol. Biobutanol production process can be done by using the process of fermentation of organic materials such as straw stalk, sugar cane and other organic waste by involving dry algae so it will produce ABE (Asetol-Butanol-Ethanol). Based on research that has been done, the scientist stated that the use of biobutanol more precisely than bioethanol as an alternative replacement of fossil fuels in the future.

References

^[1] Emission of Combussion
^[2] Butanol as Renewable Energy
^{[3] [4]} Bio-Butanol

Regards,

@affiedalfayed
(a teacher and writer)

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