Biobutanol is one of the types of liquid biofuels. Is a liquid without color with a sharp fusel smell. This toxic substance. Part of biobutanol contains carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Differently called butanol butyl alcohol, which is produced from organic materials.
The production of this substance is divided into two generations, biobutanol 1st generation produced from agricultural crops containing starch or sugar. And second generation liquid biofuels as raw materials uses the cellulose of plants.
Biobutanol produced from biomass on the quality and characteristics not different from that obtained from petroleum butanol.
For the first time the production of biobutanol began in the early 20th century. It was a со-product in the production of acetone from molasses or corn by means of special microorganisms. And the amount of butanol was two times greater than the obtained volume of acetone. When accidentally in butanol added nitroglycern, I got the varnish, which dries quickly. This discovery made a revolution in the automotive industry. Then during Second World War butanol was used as an auxiliary component for the production of synthetic rubber.
The production of biobutanol is a biotechnological process which consists of a series of stages. It all starts with the fact that raw materials in factories to prepare the wort. Then the whole mass is fermented with the participation of special bacteria. To better fermentation scientists have bred new strains of bacteria. In the fermentation process of the formation of three main products: butanol, acetone and ethyl alcohol, and a number of other co-products in insignificant amounts. The average ratio of these products can be defined in percentage as 60:30:10. But this ratio can vary, it depends of the components of raw materials. The next stage is distillation of the fermented product. This process takes place in special apparatus. This is followed by the dehydration process and the final stage of denaturation. Organic crops containing starch and sugar serve as raw materials not only for biofuel production but for the production of feed and food. Therefore, the production of butanol second generation, to avoid the shortage of raw material, uses cellulose. The use of cellulose is energetically more profitable. But there is a problem to isolate cellulose from plants. Natural cellulose is insoluble with other substances. Still being developed to find an optimal way of separating cellulose from other components. Yet the most effective method is the physical grinding of raw materials.
Butanol has several advantages:
– it mixes easily with gasoline due to the fact that he has a low vapor pressure;
– has a good energy value;
– butanol whiter safe to use, due to the fact that less volatile;
– butanol is not stratified if there is a certain amount of water;
– production of butanol can be easily establish on the production of bioethanol;
– the use of renewable organic raw materials for the production;
– butanol is not corrosive like ethanol, so its transportation may be carried out through pipelines.
Biobutanol – a good prospect for traditional types of fuel, due to the easy manufacturing process that does not require high-tech processes and cheap renewable organic raw materials.
