Advanced biofuels
Biofuels may be a fuel for the future, but they can also help us make tangible reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the short term. We’re working now to develop advanced biofuels that can help us meet rising global demand for clean, efficient fuels
Biobutanol
We’ve set up a technology demonstration plant with DuPont in Hull in the UK, to prove that we can produce biobutanol cost-effectively. Biobutanol is an advanced biofuel with a higher energy content than ethanol that can be produced using existing feedstocks such as sugar cane, wheat or corn as well as the feedstocks of tomorrow, including dedicated energy grasses. Biobutanol can also be blended with gasoline at a higher percentage than ethanol and used in existing vehicles without requiring engine modifications. This will help to speed up the introduction of biofuels.In future, we expect that ethanol production plants, including one we’re building with DuPont and British Sugar under the name of Vivergo Fuels (also in Hull) will be retrofitted to produce biobutanol.
Through Vivergo Fuels, a partnership with DuPont and British Sugar, we’re building a biorefinery on an existing BP site in Hull. When operational, the plant will have capacity to produce 420 million litres of ethanol and 500,000 tonnes of high protein animal feed from 1 million tonnes of locally grown wheat. Vivergo Fuels could supply over 30% of UK ethanol requirements under its Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. As well as being a major biofuels supplier, Vivergo Fuels is expected to be one of the country’s largest animal feed producers. This is because a product called DDGS, used as an animal feed, is a natural co-product of the biofuel production process. When the biobutanol technology has been proven, Vivergo Fuels aims to convert this facility to produce biobutanol.
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Through a technology partnership with Verenium Corporation we’re developing the technology for advanced cellulosic biofuels made from specially-grown energy grasses. Verenium has a demonstration plant in Louisiana and through a joint venture with them, called Vercipia Biofuels, we plan to build a commercial scale facility in Highlands County, Florida. This is expected to produce 36 million gallons per year of advanced ethanol when operational in 2012 and will be one of the first of its kind in the US.
Grown effectively at commercial scale, these energy grass feedstocks could have many benefits:
Grown effectively at commercial scale, these energy grass feedstocks could have many benefits:
- higher biofuel yields per tonne and per hectare - up to three times as much energy from each acre of feedstock as corn or agricultural waste
- easier to grow on less productive land and closer to production facilities – achieving better logistics, reduced costs and lower environmental impacts
- better water efficiency and by-products that can be recycled as fertilizer
- perennial crops that take carbon from the air and fix it into the soil, which helps to improve its quality over time
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