SALEM, Ore. -- An Oregon business hopes to become the first company to turn dairy and wood waste into a renewable biofuel called butanol.
Diesel Brewing of Salem plans to burn either dairy or wood waste to create liquid butanol through a process called gasification.
Butanol is a form of alcohol that could completely replace gasoline rather than be blended with it, like ethanol.
CEO Jeff Raines and his business partners are planning to open a pilot plant in Salem by the end of the year.
The test plant would use from about half a ton to one ton of wood and dairy waste per day. If the process proves workable, Raines and his team hope to build commercial-scale plants that use 100 tons of waste per day and produce a couple million gallons of butanol per year.
