Butamax Advanced Biofuels, LLC, has welcomed the recent announcement by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) in support of the use of fuels blended with up to 16 percent biobutanol in recreational marine engines.
This decision follows five years of evaluation performed by NMMA with the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC), under the direction and guidance of the U.S. Department of Energy and Argonne National Laboratory.
Specifically, biobutanol was identified as a safe and compatible option for growing the use of renewable fuels in marine engines. It complements the extensive body of work sponsored and published by Butamax on the value and compatibility of 16 percent biobutanol blends with automotive engines and refueling infrastructure.
Jeff Wasil, BRP-Evinrude Engineering Manager for Emissions Testing, Certification & Regulatory Development and a key contributor to the NMMA biobutanol evaluation, noted
“BRP-Evinrude and the marine industry appreciate the technical expertise Butamax provided to NMMA’s marine engine evaluation program, as well as Butamax’s long-term efforts to bring biobutanol to the fuels market for our customers.”
Paul Beckwith, Chief Executive Officer of Butamax added
“The extensive work by NMMA and its partners, which enabled today’s announcement of support for 16 percent biobutanol blends, strengthens to the body of data supporting the value of biobutanol in the transportation fuels market. Butamax is continuing its work to secure required EPA and UL approvals for use of 16 percent biobutanol blends with existing road vehicles and dispensing infrastructure. The broad distribution which those approvals would enable will be key to making these blends widely and economically available for marine use.”
For the past five years, the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) under the direction and guidance of the U.S. Department of Energy and Argonne National Laboratory, have been engaged in an industry-supported program to evaluate the performance of recreational marine engines operated on fuel containing up to 16 percent biobutanol.
The research and subsequent resolution to formally move forward with butanol as an industry-wide biofuel alternative comes as the industry focuses on addressing the congressionally-mandated Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requiring 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into the gasoline supply by 2022. The recreational boating industry is highly focused on the need to move towards alternative, renewable fuels and continues to support that effort.
However, it is important to find fuel sources that are not only renewable but also safe for all engines and consumers who may use them. Methods to increase renewable fuels in the gasoline supply have primarily focused on ethanol, specifically fuel with a higher blend of ethanol such as E15 (fuel with 15% ethanol). Multiple reports show that ethanol blends greater than 10 percent cause significant damage to marine engines. As a result, the marine industry has explored biobutanol fuel blends with very promising results. Most notably, biobutanol does not phase separate in the presence of water like ethanol. P
hase separation occurs when water is introduced and ethanol separates from gasoline, forming two separate solutions. An engine won’t run on the ethanol solution, which sinks to the bottom of the tank and is highly corrosive. Additional encouraging properties of biobutanol are its higher energy content compared to ethanol and the fact that it has caused no performance-related issues in marine engines.
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