Ethanol: An Alternative Fuel Source
Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, is a clear, colorless, flammable alcohol. It is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and is used as an alternative fuel in vehicles. It has the chemical formula C2H5OH.
Production
It is mainly produced from Ethanol feedstocks such as corn, sugarcane, and wheat. The production process involves the microbial fermentation of sugars present in these crops.
Corn is the primary source of it in the United States. In the production process, the starch from corn kernels is first broken down into simple sugars like glucose using enzymes. Then, yeast is added to the mixture which converts the sugars into it and carbon dioxide through fermentation. It is separated through a distillation process.
In Brazil, sugarcane is the main feedstock used for production. Sugarcane naturally contains high levels of sucrose which can be directly fermented by yeast into it without the need for additional processing. Brazil is the second largest producer in the world due to its large sugarcane crops and long history of it production.
Wheat is also being explored as a potential feedstock for its production. However, wheat contains less starch than corn making the process more expensive. Research is ongoing to develop cost-effective enzyme and fermentation technologies to produce it from cellulosic parts of the wheat plant.
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