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Branson puts bucks into branded ethanol?
We are marketing nerds, and so we were intrigued by the investment of one of the world’s best marketers in a fuel business. Is there something more to the business of ethanol than finetuning the manufacturing process? Are Branson and Khosla trying to create a branded sustainable fuel experience? One thing that excites us tremendously about working with big brands like Expedia is that we get to see how sustainability works it way into all types of purchase decisions. People have an obvious hunger for products that don’t contribute to the degradation of our natural resources. Today in the fuel industry, such products are difficult to find. Oil companies do their best to burnish their image with glossy magazine ads touting their environmental stewardship, but those efforts rarely translate into consumer choice at the pump. Demand is clearly there. How else to explain the thousands of Americans kitting their cars out to run on biodiesel, lugging around gas cans (or brewing at home) and generally struggling to do something, anything different? Or consider the success of Bio Willie, Willie Nelson’s branded biodiesel that has become an absolute hit on cross-country trucking routes. Whatever the problems with ethanol as a source of greenhouse gas reductions, it has the advantage over biodiesel of being compatible with a much larger number of cars on the road today. And while Khosla obviously thinks there is money in manufacturing ethanol, the infusion of cash from Branson makes us wonder if perhaps Khosla isn’t thinking bigger. Can we expect to soon see a new brand of more sustainable fueling stations coming to California? Comments6 comment(s) on this post. Leave your own!
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According to GreenCarCongress, Sir Richard Branson will 
A major problem with bringing ethanol to California is how to transport it. It has to be transported either by truck or rail. Unlike gasoline it can't be shipped through pipelines because it adsorbs water (corroding pipes).
Because of this reason ethanol will be more expensive in California than elsewhere. Even the planned ethanol factories in California (of which 0% are cellulosic, obviously) won't be able to meet demand in the state if ethanol use takes-off.
Bio-butanol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biobutanol) is also renewable, but unlike ethanol it won't adsorb water and can be transported through pipelines (so it should be cheaper due to lower transporation costs). It should also only yield a mileage "hit" of about 10% (as opposed to ethanol's 25% hit) over gasoline. It is believed Richard Branson's upcoming "Virgin Fuels" (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/08/01/8382250/index.htm) is bio-butanol.
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According to the testing done at Consumer Reports, E-85 will give an atvantage in accereration but the milage is down as much as 27%. This gives the EPA a problem with establishing new up-to-date milage figures for any new car. You have to burn more of it to go the same distance. Even then, it emits less carbon than gasoline.
Ricard Branson is backing a way to get ethenol from the corn stocks and any other source of cellulose. This requires some very specific processes to break down the cellulose and that is patentable. He is not alone with regard to this and the future may give us a number of brands of this limitless fuel.
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"Whatever the problems with ethanol as a source of greenhouse gas reductions, it has the advantage over biodiesel of being compatible with a much larger number of cars on the road today."
Actually, this isn't true, at least for e85 compared to b100. Biodiesel is eseentialy backward compatible with any existing diesel engine. e85 requires FlexFuel technology installed. There are far more diesels than FlexFuel vehicles on the road today.
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VirginFuels.org is a news site examining global bioenergy issues with a special focus on the impact Branson's investment is having in the larger energy industry.
Although we are not associated with Virgin Fuels we agree with the principles expressed by Sir Richard. We believe we have a responsibility to our children to safeguard our environment. We believe there are viable alternatives to the continued use of fossil fuels. And finally, we are absolutely convinced there are profitable applications for biofuel and alternative energy technologies in today's commercial market.
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if you ask me Bio-butanol is the right way to go in to the future and every car should run off bio it helps the enviomoent and helps by solveing the rising gas prices
Thank you for time
By. Mr.Brandon Wilkins
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Maybe they should have invested in Methanol, which can be converted to synthetic gasoline.
How to produce cheap hydrogen, methanol and synthetic gasoline from water, heat and carbon dioxide.
Step One- Make Hydrogen by splitting the water molecules in 500C steam. The steam can be supplied directly from an "Ausra" type solar (see Ausra.com), or by using heat exchangers and geothermal or nuclear. A new process with relatively low temperature requirements can be found at:
http://faculty.uoit.ca/naterer/cha06.pdf
Step Two- Use that hydrogen to make Methanol, with 400C heat using a heat exchanger and a solar collector or other source of heat.
The chemical process is a proven one. A mixture of hydrogen and carbon oxides is compressed and is passed over a catalyst under high pressure and at high temperature. Methanol is formed.
400 °C
CO + 2H2 ===> CH3OH Methanol
CO2 + 3H2 ===> CH3OH + H2O Methanol plus water
(If existing carbon oxides are used for feed stock then later emitted during combustion, the product should be considered carbon neutral, as no additional carbon oxides are being produced.)
Step Three- Convert Methanol to synthetic gasoline, using something called the "Mobil" process. This also a proven chemical process.
http://chemelab.ucsd.edu/methanol/memos/final.html
http://www.nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/energy/7D.pdf
Conclusion: With only water and carbon oxides as a feedstock, and heat from solar concentrators, carbon neutral gasoline can be created to fuel vehicles.
Benefits:
-No fossil fuel is used in the production of this fuel.
-This fuel replaces fossil a fuel thus reducing carbon emissions.
-The synthetic gasoline produces no new greenhouse gases. Carbon oxides emitted are equal to those used as raw materials. So it is carbon neutral.
-No new infrastructure for handling special fuels is required.
-The fuel works efficiently and harmlessly with most light vehicles, without modifications.
-The fuel has a higher energy density than methanol, ethanol or hydrogen.
-Range and performance is similar to regular, unleaded gasoline.
-There is no sulfur or nitrogen content, that would contribute to acid rain.
-No Biomass, no farm land used.
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