Bioethanol is one of our options for alternative fuels if we are going to end our dependency on fossil fuels. There are several advantages of bioethanol that makes it use so common in bioethanol fires and more recently, in vehicles. Firstly, it is cheaper than most alternative fuels in the market right now due to government subsidies offered to the farmers that produce the raw materials and lower tax rates.
2. Four steps that usually go into a bioethanol production :
Fermentation:
Fermentation is the most important part of the process and this is
where the alcohol that can be combusted is produced. When the
microbes go to work on the sugars in the starch and cellulose of
the plant, ethanol is produced which is combustible and burns
cleanly.
Distillation:
The water from the previous process has to then be removed to
make the ethanol usable and this means that it is distilled until it
is about 95% pure ethanol with a little water remaining in the
form of water ethanol zoetrope. This little bit of water left makes
it unsuitable for mixing with petrol and therefore cannot be used
as fuel in cars but can be used for other things like bio ethanol
fires.
3.
Dehydration:
There are two ways in which the remaining water is removed
from the mixture. One is through the use of a very fine sieve that
works on a molecular level and can remove the water. This is the
most used method but some facilities also use isotropic
distillation which requires that hydrocarbon benzene be added
to the mixture to not only remove the water but also denature the
ethanol so it cannot be used for recreational drinking (often
done for tax and duty purposes).
Denaturing:
In addition to land plants, bioethanol can also be obtained from
algae and seaweed which produce bioethanol naturally. There are
also plans for massive seaweed farms to be used for this just
purpose and they should make bioethanol production cheaper
and easier with less strain put on food supply which is affected at
the moment.
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