ExxonMobil, which is the largest oil company in the world, is devoting $600 million to the development of biofuels from algae. Half of the funds will go to a bioengineering startup called Synthetic Genomics Inc., founded by bioresearch pioneer J. Craig Venter.
DuPont Co. and British Petroleum will be partnering to make butanol which is a heavy alcohol made from biomass. Biomass is fermented to make the butanol. This has huge advantages over ethanol which is primarily made from corn. Biomass is basicly waste organic material that unlike corn is not consumed by people and animals making the feed stock tremendously cheaper. Unlike ethanol, butanol is compatible with the existing infrastructure of gasoline pipelines, trucks, pumps and tanks. Butanol is not subsided like ethanol.
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