I live up here in WI and the company I work for sells some machinery & equipment to BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products / Can-Am, Rotax, Evinrude, Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo) at their research facility in Sturtevant, WI. They just received an award and were named the 2014 winner of the WI Business Friend of the Environment.
Being a big fan of E-85, I was curious on their thoughts on ethanol, and had a LONG discussion with one of their product managers. They are going all in on isobutanol and view ethanol as a first generation biofuel to be used primarily as an additive only.
He described to me that isobutanol has a longer hydrocarbon chain and is closer to gasoline than ethanol. He added that it has 98% of the energy density of gasoline, it does not readily absorb water and can be mixed at any proportion with gasoline. It can be shipped in the existing gasoline infrastructure and it can be produced from plant matter not connected to food supplies. And, most importantly to BRP, it has HC numbers that are very low for emissions reasons.
BRP has spent millions (and I mean Millions) to reduce emissions on their 2 cycle (E-Tec) engines and have achieved emissions lower than a 4 cycle engine in some applications.
They consider ethanol a "past" technology and consider isobutanol the "current" generation alternative fuel are going all in toward that end. These guys are very knowledgeable on fuels/emissions and have the resorces and political will to make this happen. They are not operating on the fringe. I cannot tell you how adamant they are that isobutanol is the fuel of the future.
Very interesting conversations.
Being a big fan of E-85, I was curious on their thoughts on ethanol, and had a LONG discussion with one of their product managers. They are going all in on isobutanol and view ethanol as a first generation biofuel to be used primarily as an additive only.
He described to me that isobutanol has a longer hydrocarbon chain and is closer to gasoline than ethanol. He added that it has 98% of the energy density of gasoline, it does not readily absorb water and can be mixed at any proportion with gasoline. It can be shipped in the existing gasoline infrastructure and it can be produced from plant matter not connected to food supplies. And, most importantly to BRP, it has HC numbers that are very low for emissions reasons.
BRP has spent millions (and I mean Millions) to reduce emissions on their 2 cycle (E-Tec) engines and have achieved emissions lower than a 4 cycle engine in some applications.
They consider ethanol a "past" technology and consider isobutanol the "current" generation alternative fuel are going all in toward that end. These guys are very knowledgeable on fuels/emissions and have the resorces and political will to make this happen. They are not operating on the fringe. I cannot tell you how adamant they are that isobutanol is the fuel of the future.
Very interesting conversations.