ScienceSeptember 6, 2026

biobutanol

BY-oh-BYOO-tuh-nawl

Definition

A form of the alcohol butanol produced through the fermentation of biomass, used as a renewable fuel substitute for petroleum.

Etymology

The word is a portmanteau formed from the prefix 'bio-' (from Greek bios, meaning life) and 'butanol' (a four-carbon alcohol, derived from butyl, which comes from the plant genus Butyrospermum plus the chemical suffix -ol).

In the news

In this article, biobutanol is the target fuel created by fermenting whisky-industry waste, serving as a clean-burning alternative to gasoline for standard car engines.

About a tenth of what comes out of malt whisky production is spirit, while Scotland's malt whisky industry produces almost 750,000 metric tons of spent barley and 2 billion liters of copper-laced pot ale a year, residues one Scottish firm has fermented into a petr

Read the full article ↗

ScienceBlog.com

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