Biological Process for Butanol Production

Butanol (biobutanol, if derived from biosources), an aliphatic saturated alcohol, is an industrial commodity, currently produced from petrochemical feedstock, with a worldwide capacity of 5 million metric tons and an average selling price of $0.9/kg ($3.4/gal, as of December 2006). Its primary industrial use is as a solvent. Although butanol is not currently used as a biofuel, it has a number of properties that make it extremely attractive. A comparison of critical fuel parameters of butanol with gasoline and ethanol clearly shows that it indeed represents a better alternative over ethanol (see Table 8.1).