Washington University advances pilot butanol project with $425,000 USDA grant

In Missouri, researchers at Washington University have received a $425,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture for a pilot butanol project. The university’s International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability is using microbes to produce butyrate from corn kernels. Butyrate can be fermented into butanol.

“We pretty much placed our bets on cellulosic ethanol,” Gary Schmitz, of the National Renewable Energy Lab, told St. Louis Today “But we are on record, in testimony before Congress, as saying that longer term, butanol is one of several alternative bio-based fuels that may be worth looking at.” Butanol can produce a high density fuel that can be transported across existing infrastructure, used in existing vehicles, and has a comparable fuel economy to gasoline.

In other recent news on butanol development, Gevo announced it has acquired an exclusive license for use of UCLA’s method for modifying E.coli bacteria, that will improve its ability to mass produce next-gen biofuels such as butanol. Gevo said that the technology will allow it potentially to retrofit existing ethanol plants to produce butanol, at a low capital cost, and will speed up the commercialization of butanol by several years.

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