BP and DuPont FAQs
Q. What are BP and DuPont announcing?
A. We are announcing the creation of a partnership to develop, produce and market a next generation of biofuels to help meet increasing global demand for renewable transport fuels.
Q. Why are BP and DuPont creating this partnership?
A. Both firms share a strong commitment to developing biofuels that help diversify energy supplies and address climate change issues. This new collaboration allows the two firms to focus jointly on developing renewable transportation fuels by capitalizing on DuPont’s biotechnology and bio-manufacturing capabilities and BP’s fuels technology expertise and access to major fuel markets.
Q. What are biofuels?
A. The term ‘biofuels’ covers all transportation or liquid fuels which are made from biomass. Biomass itself is organic plant material which has stored energy from the sun in the form of chemical energy. We can convert this stored chemical energy into liquid fuels by a number of relatively simple steps. For example, we can ferment the sugars in crops like corn, wheat or sugar beets into ethanol. We can convert vegetable oils from rape-seed, soy beans, or even algae into biodiesel by a process called esterifciation.
Q. What is biobutanol?
A. Biobutanol is an alcohol with properties that make it a high performance fuel produced from agricultural feedstocks rather than petroleum. The properties of butanol have been known for nearly 100 years but has not been widely adopted because it is costly to produce. DuPont and BP are developing new technologies to bring biobutanol to market economically.
Q: When will biobutanol be commercially available?
A: Using existing processing technology, we expected to make commercial volumes of biobutanol for market by the end of 2007. In a second phase, we anticipate using a higher conversion technology that will allow broader commercialization.
Q. How does this fit into your strategy?
A. This is consistent with, and an extension of, each company’s strategy to address climate change and actions required to reduce carbon emissions. BP has a long history of addressing the issue of growing CO2 emissions, offering increasingly cleaner fuels to customers, and identifying new growth opportunities to develop our business. DuPont is committed to putting its science to work to deliver solutions to global markets that create a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere.
Q. Will biobutanol work in my car?
A. One of the advantages of biobutanol is that it can be used in higher blends of gasoline without requiring any changes in automobile or engine design. Biobutanol will meet industry standards and will not harm cars.
Q: How is biobutanol different than ethanol?
A: Biobutanol is an alcohol, as is ethanol, but has several performance characteristics that make it a better performing fuel biocomponent that can also enhance ethanol-gasoline blends. Biobutanol can be blended into gasoline at larger concentrations, reducing global reliance on petroleum and can be distributed by pipeline. It also compliments ethanol blends, improving ethanol vapour pressure and water absorption, which has prohibited wider adoption of ethanol.
Q. What feedstocks will be used to make the new biofuel?
A. The first DuPont-BP biobutanol plant in the UK will use sugar beet as the feedstock. Future biobutanol plants, however, could use any locally grown crops, including corn, wheat, sugar cane, and, in the future biomass/cellulosic feedstocks from fast growing “energy crops” such as grasses, or “agricultural byproducts” such as straw and corn stalks.
Q: How does biobutanol production process differ from ethanol production?
A: The difference is primarily in the fermentation of the feedstock - producing biobutanol rather than ethanol as the primary fermentation product. Minor changes in distillation, reflecting the different characteristics of biobutanol, are also involved.
Q. How do the plans of BP and DuPont affect global biofuels initiatives and policies?
A. These plans demonstrate a commitment to develop the biofuels sector from its current small scale to one of significance both in terms of the scale of biofuel use and the delivery of environmental goals.
Q. Over time, will this expand or contract the market for corn in the US?
A. We believe that corn in the US will continue to play a major role in the production of biofuels for many years to come. And, in fact, corn can easily be used in the production process for biobutanol.
