Clean Snowmobile Challenge to run on Iso-butanol

摘要

The 15th Annual SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge will be held March 3-8, 2014 in Houghton, Mich at Michigan Technological University. This year the challenge will be to engineer a sled that runs on bio-isobutanol. Much like ethanol, bio-isobutanol can be blended with gasoline to make a clean burning fuel. However, the energy content of bio-isobutanol is higher than ethanol blends. The process of making bio-isobutanol is different, requiring a different fermentation yeast and process. Existing ethanol plants can be converted to make this fuel. The EPA has approved this fuel as an additive to gasoline. Lead organizer of the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, Jay Meldrum said, "This is a good experiment for the teams to undertake. Each year we change the game a little to keep it fresh. We have tried flex-fuel ethanol, high content ethanol (E85), and even bio-diesel fuels." Gage Products from Ferndale, Mich, will once again be the fuel supplier for CSC providing all the fuel for every team and every event.