EPA says butanol among “most promising biofuels"

November 14, 2011 |

In Washington, a top official with the US Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates motor fuels, recently told lawmakers that butanol is one of the nation’s “most promising biofuels.” However, according to companies that plan to make the fuel, butanol faces potential government barriers that provide an advantage to ethanol. These include a special exemption in air pollution laws that cleared the way for ethanol to be used as an additive in gasoline.

The companies working on butanol include DuPont, which has a joint venture called Butamax with oil giant BP, and a small Colorado-based firm, Gevo Inc., which is converting corn ethanol plants in Minnesota and South Dakota to produce butanol.

Category: Policy

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