A new biofuel: propane

While much of the attention on biofuels has focused on ethanol, the process developed by the MIT researchers produces propane, says Andrew Peterson, one of the graduate students who demonstrated the reactions. Propane is used in the United States for residential heating and some industrial processes, and to a limited extent as a liquid transportation fuel. "We're making a demonstrated fuel" for which a market and an infrastructure already exist, says Peterson, who works in the lab of chemical-engineering professor Jefferson Tester and has founded the startup C3 BioEnergy, based in Cambridge, MA, to commercialize the technology... "www.checkbiotech.org":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/green_News_Biofuels.aspx?infoId=14483]

---

Related articles

The Long-Run Impact of Corn-Based Ethanol on the Grain, Oilseed, and Livestock Sectors with Implications for Biotech Crops - The ongoing growth of corn–based ethanol production raises some fundamental questions about what impact continued growth will have on US and world agriculture (22.5.2007)

UN warns on impacts of biofuels - A UN report warns that a hasty switch to biofuels could have major impacts on livelihoods and the environment (10.5.2007)

New variety of corn makes ethanol production for cars more cost effective - Michigan State University researchers claim to have developed a new variety of corn that promises to make ethanol production for running cars, more cost-effective and efficient (9.5.2007)

New generation biofuels coming soon - The credentials of biofuels might have been dented by claims that current production methods are inefficient, lead to deforestation and drive up food prices, but a German firm hopes to change all this with new technology (24.4.2007)

New biofuels process promises to meet all US transportation needs - Purdue University chemical engineers have proposed a new environmentally friendly process for producing liquid fuels from plant matter - or biomass - potentially available from agricultural and forest waste, providing all of the fuel needed for "the entire U (16.3.2007)