Where can I get alot of info on ethanol?

Question

I need to write a 10-12 page paper on ethanol. it can be on ethanol or any other alternative fuel that comes from plants and such. thx for the help!

Answer 1

Oak Ridge Laboratories has a great page about switchgrass and what a valuable resource it is. Good luck.

Answer 2

Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, drinking alcohol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, colorless, slightly toxic chemical compound with a distinctive perfume-like odor, and is best known as the alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. In common usage, it is often referred to simply as alcohol. Its molecular formula is variously represented as EtOH, CH3CH2OH, C2H5OH or as its empirical formula C2H6O.

Physical properties

Ethanol's hydroxyl group is able to participate in hydrogen bonding. At the molecular level, liquid ethanol consists of hydrogen-bonded pairs of ethanol molecules; this phenomenon renders ethanol more viscous and less volatile than less polar organic compounds of similar molecular weight. In the vapor phase, there is little hydrogen bonding; ethanol vapor consists of individual ethanol molecules. Ethanol, like most short-chain alcohols, is flammable, colorless, has a strong odor, and is volatile.

Ethanol has a refractive index of 1.3614. Ethanol is a versatile solvent. It is miscible with water and with most organic liquids, including nonpolar liquids such as aliphatic hydrocarbons. Organic solids of low molecular weight are usually soluble in ethanol. Among ionic compounds, many monovalent salts are at least somewhat soluble in ethanol, with salts of large, polarizable ions being more soluble than salts of smaller ions. Most salts of polyvalent ions are practically insoluble in ethanol.

Furthermore, ethanol is used as a solvent in dissolving medicines, food flavorings and colorings that do not dissolve easily in water. Once the non-polar material is dissolved in the ethanol, water can be added to prepare a solution that is mostly water. The ethanol molecule has a hydrophilic -OH group that helps it dissolve polar molecules and ionic substances. The short, hydrophobic hydrocarbon chain CH3CH2- can attract non-polar molecules. Thus ethanol can dissolve both polar and non-polar substances.

Several unusual phenomena are associated with mixtures of ethanol and water. Ethanol-water mixtures have less volume than their individual components: a mixture of equal volumes ethanol and water has only 95.6% of the volume of equal parts ethanol and water, unmixed. The addition of even a small amount of ethanol to water sharply reduces the surface tension of water. This property partially explains the tears of wine phenomenon: when wine is swirled inside a glass, ethanol evaporates quickly from the thin film of wine on the wall of the glass. As its ethanol content decreases, its surface tension increases, and the thin film beads up and runs down the glass in channels rather than as a smooth sheet.

Chemistry



Chemical formula of ethanol, (C is carbon, the dash is a single bond, H is hydrogen, O is oxygen)The chemistry of ethanol is largely that of its hydroxyl group.

Acid-base chemistry

Ethanol's hydroxyl proton is weakly acidic, having a pKa of only 15.9, compared to water's 15.7[1] (Ka of ethanol is a measure of . Note that Ka of water is derived by dividing water's dissociation constant,  moles2/liter, by its molar density of 55.5 moles/liter). Ethanol can be quantitatively converted to its conjugate base, the ethoxide ion (CH3CH2O−), by reaction with an alkali metal such as sodium. This reaction evolves hydrogen gas:

2CH3CH2OH + 2Na → 2CH3CH2ONa + H2

Nucleophilic substitution

In aprotic solvents, ethanol reacts with hydrogen halides to produce ethyl halides such as ethyl chloride and ethyl bromide via nucleophilic substitution:

CH3CH2OH + HCl → CH3CH2Cl + H2O

CH3CH2OH + HBr → CH3CH2Br + H2O

Ethyl halides can also be produced by reacting ethanol by more specialized halogenating agents, such as thionyl chloride for preparing ethyl chloride, or phosphorus tribromide for preparing ethyl bromide.

Esterification

Under acid-catalysed conditions, ethanol reacts with carboxylic acids to produce ethyl esters and water:

RCOOH + HOCH2CH3 → RCOOCH2CH3 + H2O

The reverse reaction, hydrolysis of the resulting ester back to ethanol and the carboxylic acid, limits the extent of reaction, and high yields are unusual unless water can be removed from the reaction mixture as it is formed. Esterification can also be carried out using more a reactive derivative of the carboxylic acid, such as an acyl chloride or acid anhydride. A very common ester of ethanol is ethyl acetate, found in for example nailpolish remover.

Ethanol can also form esters with inorganic acids. Diethyl sulfate and triethyl phosphate, prepared by reacting ethanol with sulfuric and phosphoric acid, respectively, are both useful ethylating agents in organic synthesis. Ethyl nitrite, prepared from the reaction of ethanol with sodium nitrite and sulfuric acid, was formerly a widely-used diuretic.

Dehydration

Strong acids, such as sulfuric acid, can catalyse ethanol's dehydration to form either diethyl ether or ethylene:

2 CH3CH2OH → CH3CH2OCH2CH3 + H2O

CH3CH2OH → H2C=CH2 + H2O

Although sulfuric acid catalyses this reaction, the acid is diluted by the water that is formed, which makes the reaction inefficient. Which product, diethyl ether or ethylene, predominates depends on the precise reaction conditions.

Oxidation

Ethanol can be oxidized to acetaldehyde, and further oxidized to acetic acid. In the human body, these oxidation reactions are catalysed by enzymes. In the laboratory, aqueous solutions of strong oxidizing agents, such as chromic acid or potassium permanganate, oxidize ethanol to acetic acid, and it is difficult to stop the reaction at acetaldehyde at high yield. Ethanol can be oxidized to acetaldehyde, without overoxidation to acetic acid, by reacting it with pyridinium chromic chloride.

Combustion



Ethanol combusting in the confines of an evaporating dishCombustion of ethanol forms carbon dioxide and water:

C2H5OH + 3 O2 → 2 CO2 +3 H2O

Ethanol is produced both as a petrochemical, through the hydration of ethylene, and biologically, by fermenting sugars with yeast.

Ethylene hydration

Ethanol for use as industrial feedstock is most often made from petrochemical feedstocks, typically by the acid-catalyzed hydration of ethene, represented by the chemical equation

C2H4 + H2O → CH3CH2OH

The catalyst is most commonly phosphoric acid, adsorbed onto a porous support such as diatomaceous earth or charcoal; this catalyst was first used for large-scale ethanol production by the Shell Oil Company in 1947.[2] Solid catalysts, mostly various metal oxides, have also been mentioned in the chemical literature.

In an older process, first practiced on the industrial scale in 1930 by Union Carbide,[3] but now almost entirely obsolete, ethene was hydrated indirectly by reacting it with concentrated sulfuric acid to produce ethyl sulfate, which was then hydrolysed to yield ethanol and regenerate the sulfuric acid:

C2H4 + H2SO4 → CH3CH2SO4H

CH3CH2SO4H + H2O → CH3CH2OH + H2SO4

[edit] Fermentation

Ethanol for use in alcoholic beverages, and the vast majority of ethanol for use as fuel, is produced by fermentation: when certain species of yeast (most importantly, Saccharomyces cerevisiae) metabolize sugar in the absence of oxygen, they produce ethanol and carbon dioxide. The overall chemical reaction conducted by the yeast may be represented by the chemical equation

C6H12O6 → 2 CH3CH2OH + 2 CO2



The process of culturing yeast under conditions to produce alcohol is referred to as brewing. Brewing can only produce relatively dilute concentrations of ethanol in water; concentrated ethanol solutions are toxic to yeast. The most ethanol-tolerant strains of yeast can survive in up to about 15% ethanol (by volume).

During the fermentation process, it is important to prevent oxygen from getting to the ethanol, since otherwise the ethanol would be oxidised to acetic acid (vinegar). Also, in the presence of oxygen, the yeast would undergo aerobic respiration to produce just carbon dioxide and water, without producing ethanol.

In order to produce ethanol from starchy materials such as cereal grains, the starch must first be broken down into sugars. In brewing beer, this has traditionally been accomplished allowing the grain to germinate, or malt. In the process of germination, the seed produces enzymes that can break its starches into sugars. For fuel ethanol, this hydrolysis of starch into glucose is accomplished more rapidly by treatment with dilute sulfuric acid, fungal amylase enzymes, or some combination of the two.

Feedstocks

Currently the main feedstock in the United States for the production of ethanol is corn.[citation needed] Approximately 2.8 gallons of ethanol (10 liters) are produced from one bushel of corn (35 liters). While much of the corn turns into ethanol, some of the corn also yields by-products such as DDGS (distillers dried grains with solubles) that can be used to fulfill a portion of the diet of livestock. A bushel of corn produces about 18 pounds of DDGS.[4] Critics of ethanol as fuel decry the use of corn to produce ethanol because corn is an energy-intensive crop that requires petroleum-derived fertilizers; however, using corn to produce alcohol could save farmers additional petroleum if the farmers are feeding the byproduct to livestock and if the excrement from the animals is then used as fertilizer for the corn [Lynn Ellen Doxon; The Alcohol Fuel Handbook]. Although most of the fermentation plants have been built in corn-producing regions, sorghum is also an important feedstock for ethanol production in the Plains states. Pearl millet is showing promise as an ethanol feedstock for the southeastern U.S.

Trials of new crops, such as agricultural residues, wood wastes, and various grasses, show much lower yields using conventional, commercialized processes. These crops are cellulosic rather than starchy, and have fewer accessible sugars for fermentation.Newer, more complex processes are necessary to release plant sugars, primarily by disrupting lignin networks. However, the appeal of such crops is their lower requirement for fertilizer and other inputs, and in some cases lower cost or higher availability as "waste" products.

The dominant ethanol feedstock in warmer regions is sugarcane.[citation needed] The directly-accessible sugars simplify the fermentation process.[citation needed] In temperate regions, this accessibility has been somewhat replicated by selective breeding of the sugar beet.

In some parts of Europe, particularly France and Italy, wine is used as a feedstock due to massive oversupply. Japan is hoping to use rice wine (sake) as an ethanol source.

At petroleum prices like those that prevailed through much of the 1990s, ethylene hydration was a decidedly more economical process than fermentation for producing purified ethanol. Later increases in petroleum prices, coupled with perennial uncertainty in agricultural prices, make forecasting the relative production costs of fermented versus petrochemical ethanol difficult.

Testing Ethanol On-Line

In breweries and BioFuel plants, the quantity of ethanol present is measured using one of two methods. Infrared ethanol sensors measure the vibrational frequency of dissolved ethanol using the CH band at 2900cm-1. This method uses a relatively inexpensive solid state sensor that compares the CH band with a reference band to calculate the ethanol content. This calculation makes use of the Beer-Lambert law.

Alternatively, by measuring the density of the starting material, and the density of the product, using a hydrometer, the change in gravity during fermentation is used to derive the alcohol content. This is an inexpensive and indirect method but has a long history in the beer brewing industry.

Purification



Near infrared spectrum of liquid ethanol.The product of either ethylene hydration or brewing is an ethanol-water mixture. For most industrial and fuel uses, the ethanol must be purified. Fractional distillation can concentrate ethanol to 95.6% by weight (89.5 mole%). The mixture of 95.6% ethanol and 4.4% water (percentage by weight) is an azeotrope with a boiling point of 78.2 °C, and cannot be further purified by distillation. Therefore, 95% ethanol in water is a fairly common solvent.

After distillation ethanol can be further purified by "drying" it using lime or salt. When lime (calcium oxide) is mixed with the water in ethanol, calcium hydroxide forms. The calcium hydroxide can then be separated from the ethanol. Dry salt will dissolve some of the water content of the ethanol as it passes through, leaving a purer alcohol.

Several approaches are used to produce absolute ethanol. The ethanol-water azeotrope can be broken by the addition of a small quantity of benzene. Benzene, ethanol, and water form a ternary azeotrope with a boiling point of 64.9 °C. Since this azeotrope is more volatile than the ethanol-water azeotrope, it can be fractionally distilled out of the ethanol-water mixture, extracting essentially all of the water in the process. The bottoms from such a distillation is anhydrous ethanol, with several parts per million residual benzene. Benzene is toxic to humans, and cyclohexane has largely supplanted benzene in its role as the entrainer in this process.

Alternatively, a molecular sieve can be used to selectively absorb the water from the 95.6% ethanol solution. Synthetic zeolite in pellet form can be used, as well as a variety of plant-derived absorbents, including cornmeal, straw, and sawdust. The zeolite bed can be regenerated essentially an unlimited number of times by drying it with a blast of hot carbon dioxide. Cornmeal and other plant-derived absorbents cannot readily be regenerated, but where ethanol is made from grain, they are often available at low cost. Absolute ethanol produced this way has no residual benzene, and can be used to fortify port and sherry in traditional winery operations. Membranes can also be used to separate ethanol and water. The membrane can break the water-ethanol azeotrope because separation is not based on vapor-liquid equilibria. Membranes are often used in the so-called hybrid membrane distillation process. This process uses a pre-concentration distillation column as first separating step. The further separation is then accomplished with a membrane operated either in vapor permeation or pervaporation mode. Vapor permeation uses a vapor membrane feed and pervaporation uses a liquid membrane feed.

At pressures less than atmospheric pressure, the composition of the ethanol-water azeotrope shifts to more ethanol-rich mixtures, and at pressures less than 70 torr (9.333 kPa) , there is no azeotrope, and it is possible to distill absolute ethanol from an ethanol-water mixture. While vacuum distillation of ethanol is not presently economical, pressure-swing distillation is a topic of current research. In this technique, a reduced-pressure distillation first yields an ethanol-water mixture of more than 95.6% ethanol. Then, fractional distillation of this mixture at atmospheric pressure distills off the 95.6% azeotrope, leaving anhydrous ethanol at the bottoms.

Prospective technologies

Glucose for fermentation into ethanol can also be obtained from cellulose. Until recently, however, the cost of the cellulase enzymes that could hydrolyse cellulose has been prohibitive. The Canadian firm Iogen brought the first cellulose-based ethanol plant on-stream in 2004.[8] The primary consumer thus far has been the Canadian government, which, along with the United States government (particularly the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory), has invested millions of dollars into assisting the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol. Realization of this technology would turn a number of cellulose-containing agricultural byproducts, such as corncobs, straw, and sawdust, into renewable energy resources.

Other enzyme companies are developing genetically engineered fungi which would produce large volumes of cellulase, xylanase and hemicellulase enzymes which can be utilized to convert agricultural residues such as corn stover, distiller grains, wheat straw and sugar cane bagasse and energy crops such as Switchgrass into fermentable sugars which may be used to produce cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulosic materials typically contain, in addition to cellulose, other polysaccharides, including hemicellulose. When hydrolysed, hemicellulose breaks down into mostly five-carbon sugars such as xylose. S. cerevisiae, the yeast most commonly used for ethanol production, cannot metabolize xylose. Other yeasts and bacteria are under investigation to metabolize xylose and so improve the ethanol yield from cellulosic material.

The anaerobic bacterium Clostridium ljungdahlii, recently discovered in commercial chicken wastes, can produce ethanol from single-carbon sources including synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen that can be generated from the partial combustion of either fossil fuels or biomass. Use of these bacteria to produce ethanol from synthesis gas has progressed to the pilot plant stage at the BRI Energy facility in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Another prospective technology is the closed-loop ethanol plant. Ethanol produced from corn has a number of critics who suggest that it is primarily just recycled fossil fuels because of the energy required to grow the grain and convert it into ethanol. However, the closed-loop ethanol plant attempts to address this criticism. In a closed-loop plant, the energy for the distillation comes from fermented manure, produced from cattle that have been fed the by-products from the distillation. The leftover manure is then used to fertilize the soil used to grow the grain. Such a process is expected to have a much lower fossil fuel requirement. However, general thermodynamic considerations indicate that the total efficiency of such plants, in combination with the production of cellulose/sugar, will remain relatively low.

Types of ethanol:

Denatured alcohol

In most jurisdictions, the sale of ethanol, as a pure substance, or in the form of alcoholic beverages, is heavily taxed. In order to relieve non-beverage industries of this tax burden, governments specify formulations for denatured alcohol, which consists of ethanol blended with various additives to render it unfit for human consumption. These additives, called denaturants, are generally either toxic (such as methanol) or have unpleasant tastes or odors (such as denatonium benzoate).

Specialty denatured alcohols are denatured alcohol formulations intended for a particular industrial use, containing denaturants chosen so as not to interfere with that use. While they are not taxed, purchasers of specialty denatured alcohols must have a government-issued permit for the particular formulation they use and must comply with other regulations.

Completely denatured alcohols are formulations that can be purchased for any legal purpose, without permit, bond, or other regulatory compliance. It is intended that it be difficult to isolate a product fit for human consumption from completely denatured alcohol. For example, the completely denatured alcohol formulation used in the United Kingdom contains (by volume) 89.66% ethanol, 9.46% methanol, 0.50% pyridine, 0.38% naphtha, and is dyed purple with methyl violet.

Absolute ethanol, or 200 Proof

Absolute or anhydrous alcohol generally refers to purified ethanol, containing no more than one percent water.

It is not possible to obtain absolute alcohol by simple fractional distillation, because a mixture containing around 95.6% alcohol and 4.4% water becomes a constant boiling mixture (an azeotropic mixture). In one common industrial method to obtain absolute alcohol, a small quantity of benzene is added to rectified spirit and the mixture is then distilled. Absolute alcohol is obtained in the third fraction that distills over at 78.2 °C (351.3 K).

Because a small amount of the benzene used remains in the solution, absolute alcohol produced by this method is not suitable for consumption as benzene is carcinogenic.

There is also an absolute alcohol production process by desiccation using glycerol. Alcohol produced by this method is known as spectroscopic alcohol - so called because the absence of benzene makes it suitable as a solvent in spectroscopy.

Currently, the most popular method of purification past 95.6% purity is desiccation using adsorbents such as starch or zeolites, which adsorb water preferentially. Azeotropic distillation and extractive distillation techniques also exist.

Neutralized ethanol

Neutralized ethanol is used for some analytical purposes. The pH indicators are acid/base molecules that change their color requiring certain amount of acid or base. Neutralized ethanol is used in order to compensate for this error. The indicator (phenolphthalein, for example) is added to the ethanol solvent first and KOH is added until the color of the solution turns pale pink. The so obtained "neutralized ethanol" is then added to the target of the titration, which may be sample of neat organic acid. The titration stops when the same pale pink color is achieved. This way, the indicator neutralization error is eliminated.

Use as a fuel

The largest single use of ethanol is as a motor fuel and fuel additive. The largest national fuel ethanol industries exist in Brazil (gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 20% ethanol and hydrous ethanol is also used as fuel). Today almost 50% of Brazilian cars are able to use 100% ethanol as fuel, that includes ethanol only engines and flex fuel engines. Flex fuel engines are able to work with all ethanol, all gasoline or any mixture of both, giving the buyer a choice for a perfect balance between price/performance issue. That was only possible due to the capability of an efficient sugar cane production. Sugar cane not only has a greater concentration of sucrose (about 30% more than corn) but is also much easier to extract. The bagasse generated by the process is not wasted and it is utilized in power plants becoming a surprisingly efficient source of electricity. World production of ethanol in 2006 was 51 billion liters, (13.5 billion gallons), with 69% of the world supply coming from Brazil and the United States.

One method of production is through fermentation of sugar. Ethanol creates very little pollution when burned. Millions more acres of land are needed if ethanol is to be used to replace gasoline. Pure ethanol has a lower energy content than gasoline (about 30% less energy per unit volume). At gas stations, ethanol is contained in a mix of ethanol and gasoline, otherwise known as gasohol. In the United States, the color yellow (symbolizing the color of corn) has become associated with the fuel and is commonly used on fuel pumps and labels.

According to the Renewable Fuels Association, as of November 2006; 107 grain ethanol biorefineries in the United States have the capacity to produce 5.1 billion gallons of ethanol per year. An additional 56 construction projects underway (in the U.S.) can add 3.8 billion gallons of new capacity in the next 18 months. Over time, it is believed that a material portion of the ~150 billion gallon per year market for gasoline will begin to be replaced with fuel ethanol.  Growth in fuel ethanol in the United States is largely being driven by financial incentives that naturally exist when oil prices are over a certain level, as ethanol typically costs under $1.50 per gallon to manufacture (of course this is sensitive to corn prices) and is exempt from the federal gasoline tax. However, the United States RFS (renewable fuel standard) requires that 4 billion gallons of "renewable fuel" be used in 2006 and this requirement will grow to a yearly production of 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.

Controversy

As reported in "The Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol: an Update", the energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) for ethanol made from corn in the U.S. is 1.34 (it yields 34 percent more energy than it takes to produce it). Input energy includes natural gas based fertilizers, farm equipment, transformation from corn or other materials, and transportation.

Oil has historically had a much higher EROEI, especially on land in areas with pressure support, but also under the sea, which only offshore drilling rigs can get to. Apart from this, the amount of ethanol needed to run the United States, for example, is greater than its own farmland could produce, even if fields used for food were converted into cornfields. It is for these reasons that many people do not view ethanol alone as a solution to replacing conventional oil (see Peak Oil).

However, others disagree, pointing out that ethanol production does not necessarily have to come from the farming of corn: for instance, Liquid Fuels of Ohio produces ethanol from expired groceries.

Politics has played a significant role in this issue. Advocates for wheat, corn and sugar growers have succeeded in their attempts to lobby for regulatory intervention encouraging adoption of ethanol,  stimulating debate over who the major beneficiaries of increased use of ethanol would be. Some researchers have warned  that ethanol produced from agricultural feedstocks will cause a global food shortage, contributing to starvation in the third world.

This has led to the development of alternative production methods that use feedstocks such as municipal waste or recycled products, rice hulls, sugarcane bagasse, small diameter trees, wood chips, and switchgrass.  These methods have not yet reached the stage of commercialization.

Research shows that fuel consumption increases with the concentration of ethanol in a fuel blend. An Australian study concluded that a 10 per cent ethanol blend (E10) yielded a 2.6-2.8 per cent increase in consumption.

Blends of up to 10 per cent are normally regarded as the safe maximum for a vehicle designed to operate on petroleum. However ethanol blends can run at up to 85 per cent or higher in specially designed flexible fuelled vehicles.

Rocket Fuel

Ethanol has been used as fuel in bipropellant rocket vehicles, in conjunction with an oxidizer. For example, the German V-2 rocket of World War 2 used ethanol fuel.

Alcoholic beverages

Alcoholic beverages vary considerably in their ethanol content and in the foodstuffs from which they are produced. Most alcoholic beverages can be broadly classified as fermented beverages, beverages made by the action of yeast on sugary foodstuffs, or as distilled beverages, beverages whose preparation involves concentrating the ethanol in fermented beverages by distillation. The ethanol content of a beverage is usually measured in terms of the volume fraction of ethanol in the beverage, expressed either as a percentage or in alcoholic proof units.

Fermented beverages can be broadly classified by the foodstuff from which they are fermented. Beers are made from cereal grains or other starchy materials, wines and ciders from fruit juices, and meads from honey. Cultures around the world have made fermented beverages from numerous other foodstuffs, and local and national names for various fermented beverages abound. Fermented beverages may contain up to 15–25% ethanol by volume, the upper limit being set by the yeast's tolerance for ethanol, or by the amount of sugar in the starting material.

Distilled beverages are made by distilling fermented beverages. Broad categories of distilled beverages include whiskeys, distilled from fermented cereal grains; brandies, distilled from fermented fruit juices, and rum, distilled from fermented molasses or sugarcane juice. Vodka and similar neutral grain spirits can be distilled from any fermented material (grain or potatoes are most common); these spirits are so thoroughly distilled that no tastes from the particular starting material remain. Numerous other spirits and liqueurs are prepared by infusing flavors from fruits, herbs, and spices into distilled spirits. A traditional example is gin, the infusion of juniper berries into neutral grain alcohol.

In a few beverages, ethanol is concentrated by means other than distillation. Applejack is traditionally made by freeze distillation: water is frozen out of fermented apple cider, leaving a more ethanol-rich liquid behind. Eisbier (most commonly, eisbock) is also freeze-distilled, with beer as the base beverage. Fortified wines are prepared by adding brandy or some other distilled spirit to partially-fermented wine. This kills the yeast and conserves some of the sugar in grape juice; such beverages are not only more ethanol-rich, but are often sweeter than other wines.

Alcoholic beverages are sometimes added to food in cooking, not only for their inherent flavors, but also because the alcohol dissolves flavor compounds that water cannot.

Chemicals derived from ethanol

Ethyl esters

In the presence of an acid catalyst (typically sulfuric acid) ethanol reacts with carboxylic acids to produce ethyl esters:

CH3CH2OH + RCOOH → RCOOCH2CH3 + H2O

The two largest-volume ethyl esters are ethyl acrylate (from ethanol and acrylic acid) and ethyl acetate (from ethanol and acetic acid). Ethyl acrylate is a monomer used to prepare acrylate polymers for use in coatings and adhesives. Ethyl acetate is a common solvent used in paints, coatings, and in the pharmaceutical industry; its most familiar application in the household is as a solvent for nail polish. A variety of other ethyl esters are used in much smaller volumes as artificial fruit flavorings.

Vinegar

Vinegar is a dilute solution of acetic acid prepared by the action of Acetobacter bacteria on ethanol solutions. Although traditionally prepared from alcoholic beverages including wine, apple cider, and unhopped beer, vinegar can also be made from solutions of industrial ethanol. Vinegar made from distilled ethanol is called "distilled vinegar", and is commonly used in food pickling and as a condiment.

Ethylamines

When heated to 150–220 °C over a silica- or alumina-supported nickel catalyst, ethanol and ammonia react to produce ethylamine. Further reaction leads to diethylamine and triethylamine:

CH3CH2OH + NH3 → CH3CH2NH2 + H2O

CH3CH2OH + CH3CH2NH2 → (CH3CH2)2NH + H2O

CH3CH2OH + (CH3CH2)2NH → (CH3CH2)3N + H2O

The ethylamines find use in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, and surfactants.

Other chemicals

Ethanol in the past has been used commercially to synthesize dozens of other high-volume chemical commodities. At the present, it has been supplanted in many applications by less costly petrochemical feedstocks. However, in markets with abundant agricultural products, but a less developed petrochemical infrastructure, such as the People's Republic of China, Pakistan, India, and Brazil, ethanol can be used to produce chemicals that would be produced from petroleum in the West, including ethylene and butadiene.

Other uses

Ethanol is easily soluble in water in all proportions with a slight overall decrease in volume when the two are mixed. Absolute ethanol and 95% ethanol are themselves good solvents, somewhat less polar than water and used in perfumes, paints and tinctures. Other proportions of ethanol with water or other solvents can also be used as a solvent. Alcoholic drinks have a large variety of tastes because various flavor compounds are dissolved during brewing. When ethanol is produced as a mixing beverage it is a neutral grain spirit.

Ethanol is used in medical wipes and in most common antibacterial hand sanitizer gels at a concentration of about 62% (percentage by weight, not volume) as an antiseptic. The peak of the disinfecting power occurs around 70% ethanol; stronger and weaker solutions of ethanol have a lessened ability to disinfect. Solutions of this strength are often used in laboratories for disinfecting work surfaces. Ethanol kills organisms by denaturing their proteins and dissolving their lipids and is effective against most bacteria and fungi, and many viruses, but is ineffective against bacterial spores. Alcohol does not act like an antibiotic and is not effective against infections by ingestion. Ethanol in the low concentrations typically found in most alcoholic beverages does not have useful disinfectant or antiseptic properties, internally or externally. Ethanol is often used as an antidote in cases of methanol poisoning.

Wine with less than 16% ethanol is vulnerable to bacteria. Because of this, port is often fortified with ethanol to at least 18% ethanol by volume to halt fermentation for retaining sweetness and in preparation for aging, at which point it becomes possible to prevent the invasion of bacteria into the port, and to store the port for long periods of time in wooden containers that can 'breathe', thereby permitting the port to age safely without spoiling. Because of ethanol's disinfectant property, alcoholic beverages of 18% ethanol or more by volume can be safely stored for a very long time.

Answer 3

You have two options that will give you lots of information

The first: google it and click on the wikipedia website

If you want information on ethanol cars go to: www.puregreencars.com

Answer 4

try www.e85.com

Answer 5

American Coalition for Ethanol

Answer 6

www.e85fuel.com and www.drivingethanol.org and www.e10unleaded.com

Answer 7

The best!

http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/altfuel/...

Answer 8

Ethanol is suposed to be a concept of conservation.

The irony here is that the growing eagerness to slow climate change by using biofuels and planting millions of trees for carbon credits has resulted in new major causes of deforestation, say activists. And that is making climate change worse because deforestation puts far more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire world's fleet of cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships combined.

"Biofuels are rapidly becoming the main cause of deforestation in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil," said Simone Lovera, managing coordinator of the Global Forest Coalition, an environmental NGO based in Asunción, Paraguay. "We call it 'deforestation diesel'," Lovera told IPS.

Oil from African palm trees is considered to be one of the best and cheapest sources of biodiesel and energy companies are investing billions into acquiring or developing oil-palm plantations in developing countries. Vast tracts of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries have been cleared to grow oil palms. Oil palm has become the world's number one fruit crop, well ahead of bananas.

Biodiesel offers many environmental benefits over diesel from petroleum, including reductions in air pollutants, but the enormous global thirst means millions more hectares could be converted into monocultures of oil palm. Getting accurate numbers on how much forest is being lost is very difficult.

The FAO's State of the World's Forests 2007 released last week reports that globally, net forest loss is 20,000 hectares per day -- equivalent to an area twice the size of Paris. However, that number includes plantation forests, which masks the actual extent of tropical deforestation, about 40,000 hectares (ha) per day, says Matti Palo, a forest economics expert who is affiliated with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica.

"The half a million ha per year deforestation of Mexico is covered by the increase of forests in the U.S., for example," Palo told IPS.

National governments provide all the statistics, and countries like Canada do not produce anything reliable, he said. Canada has claimed no net change in its forests for 15 years despite being the largest producer of pulp and paper. "Canada has a moral responsibility to tell the rest of the world what kind of changes have taken place there," he said.

Plantation forests are nothing like natural or native forests. More akin to a field of maize, plantation forests are hostile environments to nearly every animal, bird and even insects. Such forests have been shown to have a negative impact on the water cycle because non-native, fast-growing trees use high volumes of water. Pesticides are also commonly used to suppress competing growth from other plants and to prevent disease outbreaks, also impacting water quality.

Plantation forests also offer very few employment opportunities, resulting in a net loss of jobs. "Plantation forests are a tremendous disaster for biodiversity and local people," Lovera said. Even if farmland or savanna are only used for oil palm or other plantations, it often forces the local people off the land and into nearby forests, including national parks, which they clear to grow crops, pasture animals and collect firewood. That has been the pattern with pulp and timber plantation forests in much of the world, says Lovera.

Ethanol is other major biofuel, which is made from maize, sugar cane or other crops. As prices for biofuels climb, more land is cleared to grow the crops. U.S. farmers are switching from soy to maize to meet the ethanol demand. That is having a knock on effect of pushing up soy prices, which is driving the conversion of the Amazon rainforest into soy, she says. Meanwhile rich countries are starting to plant trees to offset their emissions of carbon dioxide, called carbon sequestration. Most of this planting is taking place in the South in the form of plantations, which are just the latest threat to existing forests. "Europe's carbon credit market could be disastrous," Lovera said.

The multi-billion-euro European carbon market does not permit the use of reforestation projects for carbon credits. But there has been a tremendous surge in private companies offering such credits for tree planting projects. Very little of this money goes to small land holders, she says. Plantation forests also contain much less carbon, notes Palo, citing a recent study that showed carbon content of plantation forests in some Asian tropical countries was only 45 percent of that in the respective natural forests. Nor has the world community been able to properly account for the value of the enormous volumes of carbon stored in existing forests.

One recent estimate found that the northern Boreal forest provided 250 billion dollars a year in ecosystem services such as absorbing carbon emissions from the atmosphere and cleaning water. The good news is that deforestation, even in remote areas, is easily stopped. All it takes is access to some low-cost satellite imagery and governments that actually want to slow or halt deforestation. Costa Rica has nearly eliminated deforestation by making it illegal to convert forest into farmland, says Lovera.

Paraguay enacted similar laws in 2004, and then regularly checked satellite images of its forests, sending forestry officials and police to enforce the law where it was being violated. "Deforestation has been reduced by 85 percent in less than two years in the eastern part of the country," Lovera noted. The other part of the solution is to give control over forests to the local people. This community or model forest concept has proved to be sustainable in many parts of the world. India recently passed a bill returning the bulk of its forests back to local communities for management, she said.

However, economic interests pushing deforestation in countries like Brazil and Indonesia are so powerful, there may eventually be little natural forest left. "Governments are beginning to realize that their natural forests have enormous value left standing," Lovera said. "A moratorium or ban on deforestation is the only way to stop this."

This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS and IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalists.

© 2007 IPS - Inter Press Service



Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/...

Answer 9

Just google it.That is what the Internet is for.You have a wealth of information at your finger tips.Don't tell me you cant find anything either.I have always been able to find the information I need and usually more than I can use.