Biobutanol: A Viable Biofuel with Advantages Over Ethanol a a Gasoline Additive

Biobutanol: A Viable Biofuel with Advantages Over Ethanol as a Gasoline Additive 


Intro


Biobutanol is butanol, or butyl alcohol, derived from a biomass source. Butanol can also be made from hydrocarbons and that is known as petrobutanol. As a biofuel, butanol has some significant advantages over the most common biofuel, ethanol, or ethyl alcohol. As a C4 hydrocarbon biobutanol is more similar to gasoline than to ethanol. Butanol has a lower vapor pressure and a higher energy content than ethanol. Biomass feedstocks for biobutanol are similar to those for ethanol, grains like corn, sugar beets, sugar cane, and other biomass. There is also cellulosic butanol, like cellulosic ethanol, made from plant wastes. Biobutanol can also be enhanced by bacteria, yeast, or fungi, and made from algae as a feedstock with cyanobacteria. More specifically, genetically modified bacteria offer some future possibilities for biobutanol production. One challenge for biobutanol is that more bioethanol than biobutanol can be produced from a bushel of corn. Biobutanol has been in development as a modern biofuel for many years now and has fluctuated in value. More recently, there are biobutanol gasoline blends in use for road vehicles in parts of the U.S. 


Fermentation, Biosynthesis, Cyanobacteria, and Substrates

Biobutanol production relies on ABE fermentation - acetone-butanol-ethanol. One economic impediment to alcohol fuels like ethanol and butanol is that  they are limited by inefficient fermentation rates. Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria is useful in the commercial production of biobutanol since in a genetically engineered form it produces the highest yields of isobutanol of any microorganism. Isobutanol is a second-generation biofuel that has significant advantages over ethanol. E. coli is ideal as an isobutanol bio-synthesizer for other reasons as well: it has been studied extensively, it is very manipulatable with genetic engineering, and it has the ability to use lignocellulose (from agricultural waste) to make isobutanol. The process still faces economic hurdles though. Bioreactors are also susceptible to bacteriophages that may damage fermentation. Scientists are trying to genetically engineer that susceptibility out of new strains. 


Clostridia is another bacterium that can make isobutanol. It is very good at making isobutanol from cellulose. It was once used to make acetone form from starch. Acetone was made from corn starch and molasses in both World Wars in biobutanol plants through such fermentation. The acetone was used in the manufacture of smokeless gunpowder and rocket propellant, but butanol was still the main product. In the 1960’s it began to be more economic to make butanol from petroleum products. Other potential bio-synthesizers of isobutanol include the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the soil bacterium Ralstonia eutropha.


Genetically engineered cyanobacteria, a form of algae, are also a good feedstock for isobutanol. It does not require the use of plants. It grows faster than plants. It grows in water and sunlight and takes CO2 from the atmosphere, a climate plus. Drawbacks are a need for specific wavelengths of sunlight and a medium of precise salinity, two conditions which are difficult to control. Cyanobacteria bioreactors also require more energy to operate. These energy intensity, salinity, and sunlight requirements impact the economics of making isobutanol from cyanobacteria. 


Metabolic engineering is used to allow an organism to use a cheaper substrate. Fermentation requires sugars as a substrate so cheaper sugars, like glycerol instead of glucose, could make the process cheaper. Glycerol is cheap and abundant as a waste-product from biodiesel production. Other processes are being explored to recover butanol with higher efficiency. Enzymes are used to catalyze reactions. Fermentation chemistry and genetic engineering are two technologies used to make fermentation more efficient and the search is ongoing to find the most economic components for catalysis and for substrates. 

The Timeline of Microbial Biobutanol Production below is from the Ph.D. dissertation of Reyna Gomez-Flores at the University of Western Ontario, 2018

Projects


DuPont and BP have a joint venture to develop, produce, and market next-generation biofuels. Biobutanol is a big part of that. Swiss company Butalco is exploring biobutanol production that uses a fungi to convert organic waste into biobutanol. There are also plans for an E85B fuel mixture that is 85% ethanol and 15% butanol to be run in existing E85 engines. BP and DuPont claim that a 10% biobutanol blend with gasoline is possible with no engine modification. 


Th U.S. Coast Guard began a year-long engine test of 16.1 % biobutanol blended fuel for ships in 2012-2013. At the time the price of oil was high. They chose biobutanol over natural gas, ethanol blends, and biomass liquid fuels based on maturity, performance, safety, and logistics. Their supplier used metabolic engineering to develop yeast-based isobutanol. They were also doing engine tests where they were running engines on the biobutanol regularly for months then tearing the engines apart to analyze for corrosion and other issues. I don’t know the results of this project but I can make a guess that cost is still an issue relative to current oil and gasoline prices. 


Eastman Chemical Company also had a biobutanol project in the works in 2012, utilizing a genetically engineered Clostridium bacterium for biosynthesis. Bioacetone and biobutanol made by the process are used in coatings, molded plastics, and personal care products. 


Biobutanol is also promising as a biofuel for use as jet fuel. However, like some other biobutanol and other biofuel applications, there is still economics relative to fossil hydrocarbons, so significant subsidization is also required for profitability. Aviation biofuel does qualify as a non-CO2 emitting fuel but there has been difficulty in applying it to the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) at least as of 2016.


Two companies manufacturing biobutanol in the US, Butomax and Gevo, have had some patent disputes in the past. The companies also make by-products including solvents/coatings, plastics, and fibers. This helps them diversify. Both companies registered for “on-highway vehicle sales with EPA” by June 2018. Biobutanol blends are currently sold in select parts of the U.S. 

A more recent breakthrough in biobutanol production was recently announced in a new paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, This involves a new metal organic framework that can more efficiently separate or recover biobutanol from the fermented biomass broth. It removes a significant obstacle. Current focus is on scaling up the process.


Properties of Isobutanol that Favor it Over Ethanol


The energy density of isobutanol is 98% that of gasoline. It does not readily absorb water from air like ethanol and so prevents corrosion of engines and of pipelines. Ethanol that absorbs water can separate from the gasoline with which it is mixed. Butanols, especially n-butanol, or normal butanol, that has a slightly different chemical formula than its isomer, isobutanol, resist such separation. It can be mixed at any proportion with gasoline – ie. it can replace gasoline or be an additive to gasoline. Isobutanol has a high octane rating similar to ethanol and so, like ethanol, is suitable as an additive to boost octane rating. N-butanol has a lower octane rating and is not suitable for this purpose. It can be made from plant matter not connected to food supplies. Butanols are less damaging to engines than ethanol since they can be mixed in at higher ratios before retrofitting or modification would be required. This is because butanols have an air-fuel ratio and energy content more similar to gasoline than ethanol does. 


References:


Biobutanol, in U.S. Dept of Energy, Alternative Fuels Data Center, Fall 2018


Researchers Make Key Advance Toward Production of Important Biofuel – by Oregon State University, in Journal of the American Chemical Society, accessed in Phys.org


Butanol Fuel, entry in Wikipedia


Biobutanol: The Next Big Biofuel? – by Jessica Ebert, in Biomass Magazine, May 2008


Isobutanol to the Rescue: The U.S. Coast Guard is Testing Isobutanol Gasoline Blends in its Fuel Engines – by Chris Hanson, in Biomass Magazine, Oct. 25, 2013


The Business of Biobutanol: Acquisitions, Patent Infringement Disputes Continue – by Erin Voegele, in Biomass Magazine, Jan. 9, 2012


Promising Jet Fuel Market Looms for Upgraded Bioethanol, Butanol  - by Kapil Lokare,  in Ethanol Producer Magazine, Feb. 5. 2016 


Biobutanol Production from Cellulosic and Sugar-Based Feedstock from the Corn Plant – by Reyna Gomez-Flores. Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Western Ontario, in Electronic  Thesis and Dissertation Repository, April 24, 2018

Racism, Sexism, Harassment, and Unfairness in the Workplace

Racism, Sexism, Harassment, and Unfairness in the Workplace


With the current national focus on racism I thought I would write a bit about my own experiences. I’m a white male and below I relate some experiences I have had, a reckoning of sorts. I am being quite candid here in the spirit of providing accurate data through my own experiences. 


While most of my work is remote and has been for more than five years, at other times I have worked in offices, in the field, and attended conferences, meetings, field trips, and workshops. Before my career in the oil and gas industry I had worked many jobs, often working alongside African Americans, Latinos, and people who migrated from other countries. Sometimes they were co-workers and sometimes they were bosses. I had one job where I worked alongside ex-cons repairing and refurbishing cable TV converters, some black and some Latino. My supervisor was black and liked my work. I got called into the office to talk to the higher up boss, thinking that I was going to get my 15-cent per hour raise but instead I got fired. He said my work was lacking. My supervisor was aghast. It was a lie. As it turns out, since I got hired a few weeks before most of the crew I got fired before I had enough time in to collect unemployment. Most of them too got fired a few weeks later. At another job my boss was a very cool black biker. I don’t recall much racism in those jobs but there was likely some I missed. Where I grew up there were very few black families, but we were good friends with them. Two were classmates. However, racism was there, in jokes, in comments, in inequality of opportunities.


In college I went to a school with a big international population, so I had classmates from Africa, Indonesia, India, Europe, and all over the place. There were Muslims and Hindus. I knew an interracial couple there that had faced some backlash. One of my room mates had a black girlfriend.   

The oil and gas industry is perhaps notable, or at least it was, for having few minorities. In the field at least, there were few women as well. Drilling rigs had calendars up with naked or half-naked women. No one thought much about it. It was quite rare to see a black or Latino man in the oilfield in Appalachia. There were a few here and there. Some women would be much talked about after they came and went. Later in office work we would be educated about sexual harassment and policies around it and had to watch videos about it. This was a good thing. People did tell crude quasi-sexist jokes, once in a while. Consenting adults can do what they want to some extent I suppose, as long as long as no one objects. I don’t recall anyone complaining about that. I don’t recall much education about racism in the workplace though.  


Racism in the office was rare, but there were certain people who would make an occasional racist comment. After 9/11 I heard the word “towelhead” a lot and the n-word on occasion. In places I heard Martin Luther King Day referred to in derogatory language.


Most of the racist sentiments I encountered were in the field. After Obama was in office for a while, I heard a Texas directional driller say, “somebody ought to shoot that nigger.” There was a company man from Oklahoma who used the n-word quite frequently. Luckily, he wasn’t around long. There was one group of directional drillers and MWD guys that were openly racist in their conversations. It was sad to hear one guy adopt derogatory terms from them. In 2012 just after Obama was re-elected, I opened the door to a DD/MWD shack and an old directional driller from Louisiana barked at me, “Did you vote for that nigger?!” Interesting that they could feel so confident to say such a thing without consequence. He sort of apologized and tried to explain his use of the term but it was weak. He explained that once at a job a black man put him in danger insinuating that that gave him a right to use racist language.


Rig hands, aka “rough necks” were not known for political correctness. Some liked to mess with people and intimidate people. I worked with lots of them through the years. I actually faced what could be termed sexual harassment from some though I knew it was a ruse and tended to ignore them. A few guys took things to deep levels and would be willing to mess with anyone. Once when I got to a well site at a rig I had never worked with before I went to the doghouse and introduced myself and asked where I could plug in. Some rigs were very particular about where to plug in. A rig hand asked if I had ever worked at a drilling rig before, I said “well yeah.” He said. “then act like it,” and walked away. This was in northern Ohio. Another hand there saw my West Virginia plates and said “we don’t like people from West Virginia.” He said one guy just got out of prison. He said they were going to slash my tires and rape me. It was night. There was no one else around except them and me. I went about my work, ignoring them. Then one put a pistil up to my head and said he was going to blow my head off. I was writing down pipe tallies and just kept on writing trying to ignore him. He said some more vile things and I went off to my work trailer. I actually worked with that rig a few more times. The one guy really tried to intimidate people. It was a ruse, sure, but a cruel one. I confronted him about it and he said, “What are you a psychologist?” I was a mudlogger then. There were tool pushers that didn’t like us mudloggers. Later, as a wellsite geologist a Canadian tool pusher complained that I was going too fast coming into location. I was going maybe 10 mph, but they had a posted speed limit of 5 mph. Fair enough, but he didn’t have to threaten a sledgehammer through my windshield! I think that was just for emphasis, though.


In the oilfields and in other jobs like construction there is often a roughness around boss-employee relations. These jobs require people to know how to be safe and putting others in danger is not tolerated. One problem is people saying they know how to do something when they don’t know how to do it. One time a rig hand thought he knew about drilling and when the driller went off location for supplies. He decided to operate the rig controls and messed something up. He felt bad about it and walked off. We were in the mountains of West Virginia in the middle of nowhere. They found him hours later. I’ve heard tool pushers be abusive to rig hands, company men and drilling engineers be abusive to young geologists, and one tool pusher be abusive to his girlfriend. I saw one driller drunk as hell on location, but his co-workers were keeping watch on him. 


I have kept my hair long for the last thirty years. In some places men with long hair were/are discriminated against. Once I went to a place to inquire about a job and the owner of the company told me that if I cut my hair he might hire me but after subjecting me to religious proselytizing and accusing me of being a drug addict. I decided I didn’t want to work for such a fellow. One time on the way between two oilfield jobs I got pulled over for speeding. I drove a lot then and was a bit of a “leadfoot” as they say. The cop said he smelled marijuana, which is something I did not indulge in. Perhaps he smelled some hydrocarbon on my work jacket, drilling mud or diesel oil I don’t know. Another cop came. He said he smelled it too. They made me stand with both hands on the hood of my car while they searched it. It was humiliating. Then about 4 months later it happened again. The cop said he smelled marijuana. I got a little huffy and said a bit loudly, “No you don’t.” He put his hand on his gun and said, “You wanna get smart with me?” I said. “no sir.” Both times I’m pretty sure I was targeted due to having long hair. That is a kind of profiling. Even a few geologist colleagues had made jokes behind my back about my hair, one joking we should find him asleep and cut off his ponytail.


Another police encounter involved me sleeping in my truck. In those days we had a very small per diem and would rarely, if ever, get a hotel room. I worked a 12-hour night shift and would have to sleep during the day. We had no sleeping facilities then. You slept in your vehicle. However, in the middle of summer when it’s hot it is hard to sleep in a vehicle during the day whether the windows are down or not. On well locations there is no shade. One day I went off and found a shady pull-off place along a quiet and quite isolated gravel road and parked there for a bit. Obviously, many cars had parked there. I don’t think it was private property. I decided this would be a great place to sleep so I laid down in my truck seat there and went to sleep. I was in Amish country in north-central Ohio and I had heard a few Amish buggies go by. Later I was awakened by a bullhorn with the words, “step out of the vehicle with your hands up.” That is not a fun way to wake up! Again, it was the out-of-state plates that roused suspicion. The cop was quite rude to me and threatened to arrest me for vagrancy.


Once when walking down the street in a Midwestern city on a weekend night I was harassed. I had a t-shirt on that had a dragon and maybe a Chinese symbol. I was walking past a group of African American men. A very large one said, “My boy knows Egg Fu Yung” and pushed me hard enough to knock me down. Instead I got knocked into one of his friends who pushed me away and I stumbled on down the street. In the small town where I grew up there was one strange guy known as a neo-Nazi. After having once gotten beat up by a group of black men he unfortunately chose that avenue.

When I leave my house, I usually go by a neighboring farm that has Trump flags and signs and a confederate flag. One will see quite a few confederate flags in Ohio and West Virginia and even some in more northern states. Now, they may claim a veneration for southern heritage but that is a weaker argument for northern states. The popularity of the confederate flag directly correlates to moves to counter the civil rights movement.


I don’t recall ever encountering racism at an oil and gas meeting or conference. I do believe we are becoming a less racist and less sexist society as a whole despite the ubiquity of much direct smart phone evidence of bigotry. It is my guess and my hope that racism, sexism, and other harassment in the workplace will continue to decrease.


I have been fairly well compensated for my work over the years, but I did have one experience where I worked for a few months on a project without receiving any compensation. That would qualify as an experience of unfairness. I was recommended to a landowner who also owned a construction business to advise on drilling a well on his property. He is a well-known owner of property and businesses in the region. I agreed to do the work for a few hundred dollars and a small overriding royalty interest in the well. I advised that it was a longshot to make a good well but that it should make some gas. I did geologic mapping, researched nearby well records, advised on zones, did gas detection during drilling, picked perforation zones and attended the perforating, went over hydraulic fracture design and attended the nitrogen frac job and some of the flowback. I had written up a contact to be signed but it was never signed or returned to me. The well was in a low-pressure area and may not have been fully cleaned up and may have needed some compression. In any case, the well was either plugged back or co-produced in a zone a few hundred feet higher. I got no compensation at all and no explanation. I think he did pay for lunch once. My business was booming at the time, so I didn’t worry about it.