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Corn to Butanol:
The classical fermentation route for the production of butanol typically involves large scale anaerobic batch fermentation (50,000 gallon capacity fermentors) followed by distillative recovery of butanol. Older strains of bacteria produce 13.3 total solvent from a bushel of corn (56 lbs; 63% starch). This total amount is comprised of 7.7 lb butanol, 3.7 lb. acetone and 1.9 lb ethanol. A more efficient multistage fermentation process for producing maximal yields of butanol from corn is possible.
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The more efficient starch hydrolyzing stains developed at
the University of
Illinois (BA 101 and BA 105) produce ca. 70% more butanol from starch. This would mean that one would obtain on the order of 13 lb. Butanol from a bushel of cor when using these developed strains. Assuming that these bacterial strains can be scaled-up, corn based butanol should be produced at .27 cents per lbs., 34% less than the petroleum based butanol.
Uses:
PLASTICIZERS
RESINS
LACQUERS - solvent (butyl-acetate)
FOOD EXTRACTION - (flavorings)
BRAKE FLUIDS
ETC.
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