Physicochemical Properties of Biobutanol as an Advanced Biofuel

Materials (Basel). 2021 Feb 15;14(4):914. doi: 10.3390/ma14040914.

Abstract

Biobutanol is a renewable, less polluting, and potentially viable alternative fuel to conventional gasoline. Biobutanol can be produced from same sources as bioethanol, and it has many advantages over the widespread bioethanol. This paper systematically analyzes biobutanol fuel as an alternative to bioethanol in alcohol-gasoline mixtures and the physicochemical properties. Based on the conducted analyses, it was found that biobutanol mixtures have a more suitable behavior of vapor pressure without the occurrence of azeotrope, do not form a separate phase in lower temperature, it has higher energy density, but slightly reduce the octane number and a have higher viscosity. However, in general, biobutanol has many advantageous properties that could allow its use in gasoline engines instead of the commonly used bioethanol.

Keywords: alternative fuel; biomaterials; butanol; distillation; ethanol; octane number; second generation; vapor pressure.