BP's Isobutanol to See Its First Official Use in Major Motorsports This Weekend
By Scott Doggett March 16, 2010
By Brad Nelson, Contributor
After a brief trial in two races at the end of 2009, BP announced Monday that its version of biobutanol - what it calls isobutanol - will see its first official use in major motorsports this year when Dyson Racing takes its Mazda-powered sports racer to the track at the American Le Mans Series season opener at the Twelve Hours of Sebring this weekend in Florida.
BP is using the racing effort with Mazda and Dyson to demonstrate the benefits and commercial viability of isobutanol, which is being co-developed with DuPont through their Butamax Advanced Biofuels joint venture. The Butamax project is also developing commercial facilities to manufacture isobutanol for mainstream use.
"The smaller turbocharged engines of the ALMS series offer a valuable test-bed for evaluating fuels that can offer the best performance," said Tim Hayes, vice president of strategic accounts for BP. The fuel will be blended with ethanol for the ALMS series and BP will be the official supplier.
The ALMS positions itself as "the global leader in green racing" and has made credible efforts to support its position by integrating several types of fuels and propulsion systems in the last few years, including clean diesel, E10, E85, gas-electric hybrids and now biobutanol.
Mazda, through their MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development group and Dyson Racing partnership, intend to use the new fuel for the full 2010 season.
"We're pleased to take the technical relationship between Mazda and BP to this next step," said Robert Davis, senior vice president of product development and quality for Mazda North America. "This is a great opportunity to combine learnings from advanced fuels with a production-derived 2.0-liter turbocharged MZR-R engine."
Butanol is a 4-carbon alcohol (think butyl alcohol) that is primarily used as an industrial solvent in products such as lacquers and enamels. Biobutanol is made from biomass feedstocks such as corn and sugarcane. BP says it can also be produced from cellulosic feedstocks (switchgrass, wood waste, etc.) and eventually with macroalgae.
According to the Department of Energy, biobutanol's energy density is only 10 to 20 percent lower than gasoline vs. ethanol at 34 percent less. It blends easily with gasoline and at higher levels than ethanol (as much as 85 percent claim proponents) without modifications to vehicles or fuel delivery infrastructure.
BP claims additional benefits, including higher energy content per gallon than most first-generation biofuels, lower vapor pressure than gasoline and emission reductions on a par with ethanol
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