DUPONT BIOFUELS: BETTER DRIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY?

DuPont’s New Biofuel: More Energy Than Ethanol, Gasoline
James Fraser, March 12, 2007 (SeekingAlpha via Yahoo Finance)
- A DuPont executive says his company's cellulosic technology delivers more energy output for energy input than conventional grain ethanol...or even gasoline…

- DuPont Biofuels Vice President & General Manager John Ranieri provided an update on the company's…three-part biofuels strategy…
- 1. Discovering new technologies to make advanced biofuels, such as biobutanol...
- 2. Developing technologies to convert agricultural feedstocks and energy crops into biofuels...
- 3. Improving the yield of grain ethanol production through by increasing yield per acre of energy crops…
- DuPont's partnership with BP to develop biobutanol is based on its strategy to bring advanced biofuels to market to expand the use of biofuels in gasoline. Biobutanol will be the first advanced performance product available from this partnership…biobutanol-gasoline blends can potentially be distributed via the existing fuel supply infrastructure…[allows] higher biofuels blends with gasoline…improves fuel efficiency (better miles per gallon)…and, it enhances ethanol-gasoline blends by lowering the vapor pressure when co-blended…Biobutanol is targeted for introduction later this year in the United Kingdom…

- DuPont and the U.S. Department of Energy [DOE] are jointly funding a research program to develop technology to convert non-food agricultural feedstocks into ethanol. This program is focused on corn stover - the leaves, stalks and cobs that are left in the field after harvest. The technology was licensed to Broin…DOE awarded up to $80 million in funding to Broin Companies to accelerate the construction of a commercial-scale bio-refinery…the energy ratio - energy delivered to a customer divided by the energy used to create cellulosic biofuels -is greater than both the energy ratio for grain ethanol and gasoline…