new biofuel re-discovered : butanol

Butanol or (n-Butanol to be precise) is not a new chemical. It used to be distilled in the 1900's for industrial purposes. It turns out it could be a new biofuel

• With 4 carbons, butanol has more energy than ethanol - 25% more energy per unit volume.
• Butanol has a lower vapour pressure and higher flashpoint than ethanol, making it easier to store and safer to handle.
• Butanol is not hygroscopic while ethanol attracts water. Ethanol has to be blended with petrol shortly before use. Butanol can be blended at a refinery without requiring modifications in blending facilities, storage tanks or retail station pumps.
• Butanol can run in unmodified engines at any blend with petrol. Ethanol can only be blended up to 85% and requires engine modification.
• Unlike ethanol, butanol may also be blended with diesel and biodiesel.
• Butanol is less corrosive than ethanol and can be transported using existing infrastructures.

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Butanol can be made from non food crops. Here's an example, butanol distilled from leftovers of whiskey production.
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nuke could stop gulf of mexico oil leak

Pretty ironic isnt it. A nuke can stop a leaking oil well.

Of course you have nuclear contamination of the water but its not as if it hasnt happened before and nuclear fallout decays. Case in point: People still live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ground zero in Hiroshima is a public park. And is it any worse than leaving the leak unplugged?


in reference to:

"in Soviet times such leaks were plugged with controlled nuclear blasts underground. The id"
- Nuke that slick - Julia Ioffe - The Moscow Diaries - True/Slant (view on Google Sidewiki)

Does bio-diesel cause sequestration of carbon?

AFAIK semi-pure carbon like charcoal or biochar is not biodegradable or extremely difficult to biodegrade. See here and here and here. Burying such carbon rich solids in soil would result in carbon sequestration.

My hometown is located on a plain with lots of > 2 meter long grass. Now its an El Nino and almost summer time so the grass is dry and fires often occur. At this time of the year, I can often see black biochar on the ground from dry grass fires. The updrafts from the fire lift it up and the wind carries it for kilometers.  You can still see the fine structure of the leaf on it. But it crumbles into black dust if you touch it. Step on it and it mixes with the soil. You probably have carbon sequestration right there. This reminded me of the grey soot from all the diesel jeepneys when I used to live in Manila. It collects quickly on exposed surfaces and clogs up my PC's air filters. Its a little better now that air quality laws were passed.

Like diesel, biodiesel also causes some carbon particulates which end up as dust and soot in the air. Some of it lands on the soil or on the sea and might be incorporated into the soil or as sea sediments. If that happens, then its a form of carbon sequestrations. Biodiesel should be carbon neutral but this might force biodiesel into carbon-negative  territory.

UPDATE:  of course since modern diesle engines produce little soot, the sequestration effect is very small compared to say using diesel to actually MAKE biochar in a dedicated machine then burying the biochar in the ground.