Review on the characteristics of butanol, its production and use as fuel in internal combustion engines

This article brings a comprehensive literature review with the objective of presenting butanol, its characteristics and properties. The focus of this work is to gain a better understanding of this alcohol and evaluate its potential use as biofuel, mainly for the automotive industry. An overview on the butanol production is shown, with emphasis on processes and raw materials for the production of biobutanol. The new and growing studies to improve the acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) process are also reviewed showing new developments focused in new strains and usage of different feedstock for fermentation, in search of better process yield. On the application of butanol as fuel, some highlights on other author's studies focused in the chemical kinetics of butanol are introduced and are useful to start a debate about the potential of this alcohol or its blend with gasoline or diesel as a new and environmentally interesting biofuel.