Wilmington, Delaware
March 12, 2007
DuPont Biofuels Vice President & General Manager John
Ranieri was a keynote speaker at the World Biofuels Markets in
Belgium on Friday. He provided an update on the company’s
initiatives to deliver technologies that use non-food
agricultural feedstocks to produce biofuels as well as its
efforts with partner BP to introduce biobutanol and advanced
biofuels into the European market.
“Our bio-based materials strategy began with the premise that
products must be both high-performance and environmentally
sustainable to win in the global markets in which we operate
today,” John said. “DuPont has followed this strategy and now is
delivering products with uncompromised performance that also are
sourced from renewable, farm grown feedstocks. Biobutanol is a
good example of improved performance and environmental
sustainability for biofuels.”
DuPont has a three-part biofuels strategy that includes:
improving the yield of grain ethanol production through the
research and technology expertise of subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred
International; developing technologies to convert other
agricultural feedstocks and energy crops into biofuels; and
discovering new technologies to make advanced biofuels with
enhanced fuel properties.
Improve Existing Ethanol Production
The first part of DuPont’s strategy is increasing yield per acre
and enhancing ethanol yield of corn grain through biotechnology,
enhanced and traditional breeding techniques, and ethanol yield
prediction analysis of its corn hybrids.
Technology to Produce Cellulosic Biofuels
DuPont and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are jointly
funding a research program to develop technology to convert
non-food agricultural feedstocks into ethanol. This program is
focused on corn stover – the leaves, stalks and cobs that are
left in the field after harvest. The technology was licensed to
Broin, the largest dry-grind ethanol producer in the United
States. Last week, the DOE awarded up to USD 80 million in
funding to Broin Companies to accelerate the construction of a
commercial-scale bio-refinery at Broin’s Emmetsburg, Iowa,
facility. John outlined how the energy ratio – energy delivered
to a customer divided by the energy used to create cellulosic
biofuels – is greater than both the energy ratio for grain
ethanol and gasoline.
Biobutanol Partnership with BP and Advanced Biofuels Pipeline
DuPont’s partnership with BP to
develop biobutanol is based on its strategy to bring advanced
biofuels to market to expand the use of biofuels in gasoline.
Biobutanol will be the first advanced performance product
available from this partnership. It resolves fuel stability
issues in that biobutanol-gasoline blends can potentially be
distributed via the existing fuel supply infrastructure; it
improves blend flexibility allowing higher biofuels blends with
gasoline; it improves fuel efficiency (better miles per gallon)
compared to incumbent biofuels; and, it enhances
ethanol-gasoline blends by lowering the vapor pressure when
co-blended with these fuels. Biobutanol is targeted for
introduction later this year in the United Kingdom. Additional
global capacity will be introduced as market conditions dictate. |
|
