The Deaths of Lodgepole Pine Trees Have a Silver Lining
The Denver PostThe Deaths of Lodgepole Pine Trees Have a Silver Lining
By Mark Jaffe
Published: April 27, 2010
It's not exactly turning a sow's ear into a silk purse, but Cobalt Technologies Inc. is aiming to transform pine-bark-beetle-killed lodgepole pines into motor fuel.
A Colorado State University lab is preparing to test the brew from the California startup company in a four-stroke, overhead-valve Honda engine.
The aim at CSU's Engines and Energy Conversion Lab will be to measure the power output and air emissions of the fuel.
Using a proprietary fermentation process, Mountain View, Calif.-based Cobalt has turned lodgepole into the biofuel butanol, which is more like gasoline than ethanol.
"Butanol has some advantages," said Ken Reardon, a CSU professor of chemical and biological engineering.
Some motorists don't like ethanol because it has only two-thirds of the energy content of gasoline, resulting in lower mileage. Ethanol also can lead to corrosion because
the molecule attracts water from the air.
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