EPA registers isobutanol for blending into gasoline up to 16%

The US Environmental Protection Agency registered isobutanol as an additive for blending into gasoline up to levels of 16% volume. Administrator E. Scott Pruitt announced the June 12 approval in a letter to Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC, a BP PLC and DuPont Co. bio-isobutanol joint venture based in Wilmington, Del.

Butamax Chief Executive Jan Koninckx welcomed the action. “We believe that the combination of bio-isobutanol’s desirable fuel properties and Butamax’s production technology means that bio-isobutanol has the potential for widespread introduction into commerce,” he said.

Bio-isobutanol is an alcohol that can be produced from renewable, organic material (biomass) including corn, wheat, sugarcane and—in the future—nonfood plants, Butamax said. It was developed to accelerate the shift toward renewable transportation fuels with lower overall greenhouse gas emissions, the JV said.

“We like it because you get none of the problems associated with ethanol and all of the benefits associated with gasoline because bio-isobutanol is much closer chemically to gasoline,” said John McKnight, senior vice-president for environmental policy at the National Marine Manufacturers Association’s Washington office.

NMMA has conducted research for years to find a drop-in alternative to increasing corn ethanol concentrations in gasoline to meet GHG emission goals under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, he told OGJ on June 13.

“We expect it to be the next-generation biofuel based on all of its positive properties and plan to begin briefing refiners about it,” McKnight said. “Ethanol’s like white lightning. Bio-isobutanol is like fine bourbon.”

According to the US Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center, bio-isobutanol’s benefits include:

• A higher energy content. Bio-isobutanol's energy density is 10-20% lower than gasoline’s, while its energy content is relatively high among gasoline alternatives.

• A lower Reid Vapor pressure, which means less volatility and fewer evaporative emissions compared with ethanol.

• Increased US energy security, because it can be produced domestically from a variety of feedstocks, while creating US jobs.

• Fewer emissions. “Carbon dioxide captured by growing feedstocks reduces overall [GHG] emissions by balancing carbon dioxide released from burning bio-isobutanol,” DOE’s AFDC says.

McKnight said bio-isobutanol also may help refiners and other obligated parties address problems with Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN), EPA’s biofuel credits system for helping them meet rising quotas under the RFS.

“Ethanol gives you only 10 RINs, while bio-isobutanol gives you 20. It can be introduced directly at the refinery rather than be splash-blend. Certainly, for the time being, it lets refiners use a larger biofuel concentration and get more RINs out of it,” McKnight said.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].