Horace Heffner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> One downside to butanol is it is both toxic and water
> soluble, a very bad combination. This is the problem with
> another gasoline additive, MTBE. Gasoline spills not having
> MTBE are much easier to clean up, and less likely to
> actually get to well intakes in large quantity because
> gasoline is not water soluble and migrates upward in water.
> MTBE dissolves in water and thus fully contaminates aquifers
> it manages to reach. Cleanup is nearly impossible. The
> same would be true for butanol. There has been a movement
> to ban MTBE from use in fuels. I would guess oil companies
> would love to see a movement exist to ban a bio-fuel after
> much is invested in it.
But butanol is readily biodegradable, unlike MTBE, so it is not going
accumulate in aquifers. While I haven't much sympathy for oil companies, I'm
surprised gasoline is as cheap as it is, given all the nonsense they have had
to put up with, such as MTBE, a cure that was worse than the disease.
M.
