Re: Butanol

Oh, I agree, 

  I'm not an opponent of this process, I was just trying to poke a little fun at the "air pollution" "issue"  Y'a know the smell of patchouli? Personally I don't mind it.   Unless I *know* the buyteric came out of a bottle (whoa!)...  Same thing with mercaptans (skunk) I've used them in the lab as organ-metallic solvents... no problem, but out of a certain species of weasel, I'm outta there!    Some folks equate patchouli oil it to the aroma of a dirty deadhead if you'll pardon the cultural reference.  (I think it's a 4 carbon thing)  My friend followed the Dead from '79-'81 until he rolled his car in PA, VA, GA, MA, one of those states with an 'A' and was busted for DUI...  That how the story comes back around to alcohol & motor fuel

Do you remember K-PAX? Kevin Spacey played Prot. I can relate to Prot!

As tempting as it is to burn the fuel at elevated pressure, that's where you get into the nightmare scenario.  If you gotts keep the pressure within a few inches of water +/- to keep costs under control.

The other thing to keep in mind is that any non-cooled structure in contact with fuel and oxidizer needs to have at least ~20X the mass of fuel it's in contact with to keep from melting...