How is butanol fuel made?

Question: How is butanol fuel made?

Answer: There are two primary categories of butanol fuel, these are biobutanol and petrobutanol. Biobutanol is produced from biomass (organic matter) and petrobutanol is produced from oil. Most biobutanol is made by fermentation of biomass using the ABE (acetone, butanol, ethanol) process. This uses bacterial fermentation (using the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum) to produce acetone, butanol, and ethanol from starch contained in organic matter. It is also possible to produce biobutanol using solar energy to grow algae or diatoms that naturally produce it as waste. Petrobutanol is produced petrochemically using propylene which is hydroformylated to butyraldehyde which is then hydrogenated to produce butanol.

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