Oregon State University: Researchers Make Key Advance Toward Production of Important Biofuel
(The Register Guard) An international research collaboration has taken an important step toward the commercially viable manufacture of biobutanol, an alcohol whose strong potential as a fuel for gasoline-powered engines could pave the path away from fossil fuels, according to news release from Oregon State University.
The key breakthrough is the development of a new metal organic framework, or MOF, that can efficiently separate biobutanol from the broth of fermented biomass needed for the fuel’s production, the release said. Findings were published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The researchers are now looking to partner with industry to try to scale up the separation method using the new metal organic framework, said OSU’s Kyriakos Stylianou.
If it scales well, it could be an important milestone on the road toward non-reliance on fossil fuels, the release said.
“Biofuels are a sustainable and renewable fuel alternative, and biobutanol has recently emerged as an attractive option compared to bioethanol and biodiesel,” said Stylianou, a chemistry researcher in OSU’s College of Science. “But separating it from the fermentation broth has been a significant obstacle on the way to economically competitive manufacturing.”
Butanol, also known as butyl alcohol, is more closely related to gasoline than ethanol and can be synthesized from petroleum or made from biomass. Bioethanol — ethyl alcohol — is a common biofuel additive but contains significantly less energy per gallon than gasoline and can also be harmful to engine components.
The process of creating biobutanol is known as ABE fermentation — acetone-butanol-ethanol. It yields a watery broth that maxes out at about 2% butanol by weight. Hence the need for a separation tool that can work well in an aqueous environment and also in the presence of organic solvents, in this case acetone, which is a key ingredient in products like nail polish remover and paint thinner, according to the press release. READ MORE
