DuPont, BP launch partnership to develop biofuels for transport

DuPont, BP launch partnership to develop biofuels for transport    DuPont and BP launched a partnership this week to develop biofuels to help meet the increased global demand for renewable transportation fuels.
   The companies began working together in 2003 to explore the possibilities of biofuels. Today, biofuels account for less than 2 percent of global transportation fuels. However, current projects show that biofuels could eventually account for 30 percent of transportation fuel consumption.
   DuPont and BP’s first product to market will be biobutanol, which is expected to hit the British market in 2007. The companies are working with British Sugar, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, to convert the country’s first ethanol fermentation plant to product biobutanol.
   Production of biobutanol is expected to include a range of feedstocks such as sugar cane and sugar beet, corn, wheat, or cassava and in the future cellulosic feedstocks such as straw and corn stalks, the companies said.