| In this review,the properties of butanol are compared with the conventional gasoline and some widely used biofuels,i.e.methanol,ethanol.Then,the development of butanol production is reviewed and various methods for increasing fermentative butanol production are introduced in detail.Next,the applications of butanol as a biofuel are summarized from two aspects:(1) fundamental combustion experiments in some well-defined burning reactors;(2) a substitute for gasoline in spark ignition engine.These studies demonstrate that butanol,as a second generation biofuel,is a better alternative for the gasoline fuel,from the viewpoints of combustion characteristics,engine performance,and exhaust emissions.However,butanol has not been intensively studied when compared to ethanol,for which considerable numbers of reports are available.Finally,some summaries and future research directions are outlined. |
