{"id":20106,"date":"2012-06-12T18:24:51","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T23:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/?p=8325"},"modified":"2014-06-27T03:32:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-27T03:32:27","slug":"butanol-the-next-great-biofuel-for-boats-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/2012\/06\/butanol-the-next-great-biofuel-for-boats-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Butanol: the Next Great Biofuel for Boats?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The E10 ethanol experience soured many boaters on biofuel and the prospect of E15\"\"<\/a>entering your fuel system is down-right scary, but butanol could turn out to be a far better biofuel\u2014at least, the experts are hoping so, and to find out if they\u2019re right, a cooperative effort has been launched by BRP, Indmar, Volvo-Penta, the NMMA, Argonne Laboratory, and the US Department of Energy. They\u2019re running butanol through a variety of marine powerplants right now, to see how emissions, performance, and reliability are affected. And according to our insider contacts, the prospects look good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already know E15 can destroy engines,\u201d said John McKnight, the NMMA director of environmental and safety compliance. \u201cThe higher five-percent oxygen content leads to more heat in the combustion chamber, burned valves and rings, and failing gaskets. But at a 16.1-percent mix, butanol has a three-percent oxygen content, just like traditional fuel. Plus, it\u2019s not water soluble and it has a higher BTU value. This is very promising stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Wasil, an engineering tech expert from BRP, manufacturer of Evinrude outboards, agrees. \u201cIsobutanol represents a unique opportunity for BRP and the entire industry,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wanted to be proactive, and look at the available fuel options for the future. And so far, the results we\u2019re seeing from butanol look very promising.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the trials in Annapolis, they\u2019re running butanol through both inboard and stern drives. Most of the outboard testing is done in the lab, since it\u2019s practical to run an outboard on dry land with a water supply. As they record emissions and efficiency data, they\u2019ll also be testing the mechanical effects of butanol on these marine powerplants.<\/p>\n

The experts also note that butanol has other properties that also make it more appealing than ethanol. It doesn\u2019t absorb water like ethanol, reducing corrosion and fuel treatment issues. It doesn\u2019t seem to drastically affect oil viscosity in two-stroke engines. And unlike ethanol it remains stable after being blended at the refinery, which eliminates some of the variability sometimes found in ethanol mixes.<\/p>\n

So, when might you start pumping this powerful corn-based punch into your fuel tank? It\u2019ll be a while yet. \u201cOnly one refinery is up and running now,\u201d McKnight said, \u201cand distribution is sure to be another challenge. But we\u2019re all committed to collaborating on this project, for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

The butanol test-team will be performing on-the-water testing from sun-up to sunset every day for a full week; phase two of the testing is to be scheduled for later in 2012.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of www.boats.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The E10 ethanol experience soured many boaters on biofuel and the prospect of E15entering your fuel system is down-right scary, but butanol could turn out to be a far better biofuel\u2014at least, the experts are hoping so, and to find out if they\u2019re right, a cooperative effort has been launched by BRP, Indmar, Volvo-Penta, the NMMA, Argonne Laboratory, and the US Department of Energy. They\u2019re running butanol through a variety of marine powerplants right now, to see how emissions, performance, and reliability are affected. And according to our insider contacts, the prospects look good. \u201cWe already know E15 can destroy engines,\u201d said John McKnight, the NMMA director of environmental and safety compliance. \u201cThe higher five-percent oxygen content leads to more heat in the combustion chamber, burned valves and rings, and failing gaskets. But at a 16.1-percent mix, butanol has a three-percent oxygen content, just like traditional fuel. Plus, it\u2019s not water soluble and it has a higher BTU value. This is very promising stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}