Butamax to export Brazilian biobutanol
Valor Econômico
Butamax, a joint venture created by the British Petroleum (BP) oil company and the DuPont multinational, may turn Brazil into its biobutanol export base. The biofuel starts being produced this year at a pilot plant in England and it will gain scale between 2012 and 2014 in Brazil, the United States and the United Kingdom. In an interview to Valor, Tim Potter, CEO of the company, explained the markets of the European Union and of the USA have great potential for consuming the biobutanol. The biofuel will be produced from sugarcane in Brazil, corn, in the USA, and wheat, in Europe. "Sugarcane is the most efficient raw material in the world".
The difference between the biobutanol and the ethanol is that the former has four carbon molecules, storing more energy, while the latter has only two. The fermentation process of the product also differs from ethanol's. According to Potter, the biofuel will be produced in Brazil with a focus on the foreign market. The expectation is that by 2020 nearly 2 billion gallons (or 7.5 billion liters) should be exported from the country. The value of the investments in the development of such biofuel has not been disclosed. The Executive notices that the transport of the biobutanol can be done through the pipelines used to carry other products, without any risk of contamination, unlike what happens with ethanol.
The research on the biobutanol has begun in 2003, but it gained relevance in 2005 when the two companies - BP and DuPont - intensified the efforts around the development of the biofuel. Butamax currently holds nearly 70 patents of biobutanol. Last year, the joint venture between the two companies was formalized - each with 50%. The first pilot plant goes into operation until the end of the year in Hull, England. From June on, Butamax puts into operation the technology laboratory of Paulínia, in São Paulo. The company has another research laboratory in Delaware (USA).
Potter sees a huge market for the biobutanol both in the USA and in Europe. The USA should use 36 billion gallons of biofuels until 2022, which may be either ethanol or biobutanol, and the EU has adopted 10% of the biofuel blending to the fuels. For Brazil, the use of the traditional ethanol is already consolidated. Once the production of biobutanol in large scale is consolidated, Butamax intends, through agreements, to make the product available to the market. "In the USA and in the EU, the production of ethanol is limited. There are no barriers for the biobutanol".
BP works on several fronts to advance in biofuels in the international market. Like the Shell oil company, which formed a joint venture with Cosan to move on in the production of biofuels, BP also considers this strategic market. Besides the biobutanol, the oil company develops researches of second-generation biofuels, by means of the process of lignocellulose, from "energy grass" (vegetable sources). It also works on the development of diesel from sugar cane and in the traditional production of ethanol in Brazil, with a 50% interest in Tropical Bionergia, with a plant installed in Edéia (Goiás).