BP biofuels head eyes jatropha, butanol

BP Plc is focusing on developing jatropha and butanol for sustainable biofuel output, its head of biofuels said, as the industry faces mounting pressure for its environmental and social impact.

Philip New, president of BP's Global Biofuels division, said that although the firm were major users of ethanol, there was now scope to use supplements such as butanol which is similar to gasoline but can be made from biomass.

"Butanol appears to have the best balance of attributes: more energy efficiency, easier to blend and easier to transport," New said in an interview.

He said the firm was counting on the oilseed plant jatropha, a woody plant that can grow on barren, marginal land, as it seeks to develop more distinctive and sustainable technologies.

"Jatropha plays into that because it's not a food source. It's delinked from fuel prices and we're excited about its ability to be grown on marginal land," New said.

"When I see jatropha being intercropped with cabbages and other foodstuffs, it does feel like it is something that can be grown sustainably in lots of developing world environments."

But experts and industry officials have warned that jatropha does not offer an easy answer to biofuel's problems, because it can be toxic and yields can be unreliable.

New said more traditional forms of biofuels, such as bioethanol from sugar cane, were likely to remain the main sources in the short to medium term.

"It feels as though biofuels made from sugar cane will be an important part of the mix for the foreseeable future."

New defended the biofuels industry against recent criticism that it had raised food prices and could also harm the environment.

"Biofuels done well are absolutely valid green fuels," he said.

"Bioethanol made from rain-irrigated Brazilian cane can generate greenhouse gas savings of 85 per cent. There are also examples of biofuels done badly. But this is a complicated world, and it's a shame to categorise it all as one."

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food recently described it as a "crime against humanity" to convert food crops to fuel and called for a five-year moratorium on biofuels.

But New said he was optimistic that the biofuels industry could be developed in such a way that it was able to live side by side with the food industry.

He said the firm was looking at a range of technologies aside from jatropha and butanol, including algae.

"Algae looks like a very promising technology," New said.

Algae converts carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming, into a vegetable oil.

It does not need prime farmland, vast quantities of fertiliser, or large harvest vehicles to be grown and harvested, unlike corn, one of the feedstocks for ethanol.

- Reuters