Biopropanol is a rarely discussed biofuel. Propanol is an alcohol with a three carbon chain (C3H7OH). Propanol is less toxic and less volatile than methanol, so it has some interesting properties as a fuel, although it is rare to consider it a fuel,

Carbohydrates

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Crushing and drying carbohydrate

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Gasification and partial oxidation of carbohydrate with oxygen and water

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Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and water mixture

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Catalytic production: CO + 2Н,—► CH3OH

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Purification

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Biomethanol

11.1 Schematic of biomethanol production of biomass carbohydrates.

since most propanol produced is used as a chemical solvent. There are two main types of propanol, n-propanol and isopropanol. Biopropanol is n-propanol that is produced from biomass. The University of British Columbia has developed technology for producing biopropanol (as well as biobutanol and bioethanol) from syn-gas using novel catalysts. Syntec Biofuels is commercializing this technology.9 The other method for producing biopropanol is from microbial fermentation of biomass (cellulose), but that is extremely inefficient, because very little propanol is traditionally produced and propanol is toxic to the cell in any significant concentration, so it is impractical at this stage of biotechnology. The issues with microbial production of biopropanol as analogous to the issues with microbial production of biobutanol, so if biobutanol becomes a more practical biofuel to produce, then biopropanol will also become more feasible.