Category: ethanol

When we consider the future in general, we must realize that there is a significant correlation between the future and ethanol, and so this is one matter that we must take incredibly seriously into consideration. The reason that there is a relationship between the matters of the future and ethanol is primarily due to the fact that ethanol is considered as being our next readily supply of fuel.

The Future and Ethanol

Ethanol is a chemical which is considered as having a number of different and all just as important factors, and it is also considered as having numerous different benefits. It is considered as being better than even biodiesel, and so basically it is the top choice in regards to an answer as to what we will be using in the future as our main source of fuel.

Although the actual future and ethanol are not completely coordinated side by side yet, it is considered as being almost positively true that ethanol is going to become huge, and that we are all not going to be able to go a day without hearing the word at least once.

As well, in regards to the future and ethanol, it should be known to all that about 10% of the gasoline that is sold in the US is actually a blend of up to 10% ethanol, which is an alcohol that is made by distilling corn, wheat, and sometimes sugar.

One of the problems with ethanol however is the fact that the straw and the stalks that are left after the distillation process get burned by farmers, and if you have ever smelled a sugar cane field that is burning after harvest, then you know that it smells incredibly bad, and you should know that not only does it smell bad, but it is completely unhealthy for you as well.

As well, something that people for the most part seem not to understand or are just ignoring, is the fact that the stalks, once they are squeezed out of all their sugar, are not totally useless as some would say, but rather they can be used for further things.

Basically the most important thing is that everyone learns as much about ethanol as they can before it is too late, so that we can all gain a proper and full understanding on what it is before we are mindlessly using it for various different things.

The process of ethanol distillation is one which is rather complex and yet one which can be easily explained; ethanol is a chemical that is produced either synthetically from ethylene or from the fermentation of grain or sugar; during the ethanol distillation process, or more specifically, during the synthesis of ethanol, the product stream may be contaminated by acidic impurities, and/or sulfurous impurities.

Additionally, during the ethanol distillation process, in the presence of O2, a small part of the ethanol stream may be oxidized into various carbonyl impurities, of which acetaldehyde is the most probable one; the above impurities may cause such effects as odor, discoloration, inefficient distillation, or poor UV transmission.

More About Ethanol Distillation and Ethanol in General

In regards to learning more about ethanol distillation and ethanol in general, there are many things that should be taken seriously into consideration. For instance, there is the fact that ethanol is also known as ethyl alcohol, and that it is a flammable, colorless, mildly toxic chemical compound with a distinctive perfume-like odor, and it is the alcohol that is found in alcoholic beverages.

Ethanol is something which has actually been used by humans since prehistory as the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages, and as well, its isolation as a basically and relatively pure compound was in fact first achieved by Persian alchemists who developed the art of distillation during the Abbasid caliphate, the most notable of whom was Al-Razi.

Furthermore, ethanol is an incredibly versatile solvent, as it is soluble in water and with most organic liquids as well, and also, ethanol is used as a solvent in dissolving medicines, food flavorings and colorings that do not otherwise dissolve easily in water.

In regards to its use in fuel and alcoholic beverages, this is produced by fermentation: which is when certain species of yeast metabolize the sugar in the absence of oxygen, and they then produce ethanol and carbon dioxide. Then, the overall chemical reaction that is conducted by the yeast may then be represented by a chemical equation.

Overall it is quite easy to see the multitude of information that sounds ethanol as a whole, and therefore why it is often considered as being a rather complex matter to discuss; however, once you have even a basic grasp on the matter of ethanol overall, then you will be able to come to a better and more knowledgeable understanding overall.

The burning of transportation fuel accounts for the greatest source of air pollution in our nation. These pollutants range from allergy irritants to carcinogens. Because of the nature of gasoline and the emissions it produces, researchers are trying to find cleaner sources of energy. On source of energy that is readily available and considered renewable is ethanol, which comes from corn, sugar and other bio-wastes. From this has stemmed a grate relationship between Honda and ethanol. Read below for the plans for Honda and ethanol as well as the vehicles Honda already has that will operate on a 10% ethanol and gasoline mixture.

Honda and its Ethanol Plans

Many people are familiar both with cars produced by Honda and with ethanol options available to consumers. Honda, however, has new plans for ethanol that are very promising for the future of ethanol fuel. These plans include using bio-wastes or discarded plant wastes to produce ethanol. Not only has Honda worked hard to find places other than corn to derive ethanol, but it has also developed a microorganism that allows for more efficient production of ethanol. In addition, Honda and ethanol are planning to tie the knot in 2008 with Honda s first bio-refinery.

Ethanol Available Vehicles

Even though Honda is working diligently toward better ethanol options, several of their vehicles are already able to handle a 10% ethanol mix, known as E10. Honda and ethanol work together in several of its vehicles. These include the Honda Accord and Honda Accord Euro from 2003 onwards, the Civic from 2004 onwards, and the CR-V 2003 onwards. In addition, the Honda Integra 2002 on, Honda Jazz 2004 on, the Honda Legend 2007 on and the MDX 2003 on are also able to handle this mixture. Finally, the Odyssey and S2000 2004 onwards also can use E10. These vehicles range from compact cars to mini-vans and are appropriate for many different families.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that there is a push among automakers to develop more fuel efficient and cleaner vehicles. Honda and ethanol appear to be moving in the same direction toward technologies that will make our environment cleaner and our dependence on foreign oil lessened. With Honda s creation of an ethanol refinery and current vehicles that handle E10, it seems that Honda is a leader in the movement from gasoline to ethanol. Watch for more from Honda and the future of fuel.

In the United States, much of the ethanol produced comes from corn or other plant wastes. Ethanol is in high demand, its benefits could be used a lot more than we actually use it. In other areas around the world, ethanol is derived from sugar cane. Two such nations that are turning this crop into transportation fuel include India and Brazil. Read below about this transportation technology used by these two nations, and the possible socioeconomic impacts that this process may have on them.

India is the largest sugar producer in the world, and in terms of sugarcane, it stands head to head with Brazil. India is currently facing an overhaul of their sugar cane and molasses producing industry to incorporate the distilling of sugar cane ethanol. The goal is to take this ethanol and blend it with gasoline to produce a cleaner burning fuel and lower the country s current dependence on oil.

While India is well on its way to the increase in sugar cane ethanol production, Brazil is already there with plans to become self-sufficient in regards to energy. Brazil is already to the point where some pumps put out only alcohol while others pump out only gasoline. This achievement did not come to Brazil easily, but rather took tens of years of research, mistakes, and billions of dollars to accomplish.

The Politics of Ethanol

Fuel economy, availability and usage drive many of the political discussions, debates and wars in our current world. One of the concerns facing the nations producing sugar cane ethanol is that of foreign trade. Will the pressure placed on these nations by outside countries be equivalent to that placed by oil producing countries today? While the answers are uncertain, it is clear that other nations around the world are beginning to see the success that these two lands have had and wish to replicate it.

Currently, the tax levied on sugar cane ethanol imported from Brazil is 54 cents a gallon by the United States, hindering the involvement of Americans in the building of the industry. On another big business note, there are two industries that will dramatically be affected by the use of ethanol in automobiles including the oil industry and the automobile industry. Automobile companies are being challenged to produce cars with flexible fuel engines. These run on gasoline, a mixture of ethanol and gasoline, or on ethanol alone.

With the continued growth of the use of ethanol as a fuel additive for cars and trucks, there are a few people shunning the technology believing they will have to buy a new car once the blended gasoline is prevalent. However, there is a god chance that your currently vehicle sitting in your garage is already an ethanol vehicle.

All major automotive manufacturers have backed the use of E-10 ethanol in vehicles that burn regular gasoline and there has been no evidence that its use causes any harm or damage to the engine. An ethanol vehicle has shown no significant decrease in mileage, power or performance that those that run strictly on gasoline.

Actually, since ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline, it can actually help prevent deposits from building up on fuel injectors, helping to main the original gas mileage and avoid the loss of power typically seen in cars with high mileage. Gasoline refiners have altered their formulas over the years as basically any vehicle that burns regular gasoline can be considered an ethanol vehicle once an ethanol blend has been added to its tank.

Changes Needed For Biodiesel and Pure Alcohol

E-10 ethanol, a mix of 10 percent ethanol and gasoline, has little or no impact on the efficiency of a gasoline engine. However, for those wanting to operate their own still and run their car on straight alcohol, a few modifications will be needed. Things like input jets, main jet and air fuel mixture to turn it into a pure ethanol vehicle. Just do not drink the fuel.

There are several classes of race cars that burn pure alcohol and because of it being highly combustible, is not recommended in the family wagon with expert advice and direction. You can easily spot a pure ethanol vehicle, or more accurately smell one, as the burning alcohol has a distinct odor.

It has been said that diesel engines can run on just about any burnable liquid and they can for a while before something in the system gets gummed up. Running an unmodified diesel as an ethanol vehicle will harm the engine as ethanol burns significantly hotter than diesel, or corn oil, and can cause harm to the inner workings of the engine.

Modifications can be made without a lot of difficulty and there are conversion kits available, but currently many buses and trucks are using E-85 diesel, which is a blend of diesel fuel and 85 percent ethanol.

Ethanol, in its diluted and aqueous solution form has a sweet flavor while as a concentrated solution it has a burning taste. The melting point of ethanol is -114.1 degrees centigrade and the density of ethanol is 0.789 g/ml. at twenty degrees centigrade. Ethanol that is derived from the fermentation process has varied degrees of concentration that ranges from a few percent to approximately 14 percent and above this percentage it destroys the zymase enzyme and therefore there is no more fermentation possible.

Ethanol Should Not Contain Water

Producers of ethanol need to keep tabs on the density of ethanol as well as water content of the ethanol stream to ensure quality. In case the ethanol contains significant quantities of water and even five percent would qualify as a significant amount, it would, through its molecular structure, act more like water and less like ethanol especially when mixed with petrol that is a hydrocarbon solution. Wet ethanol can be mixed with petrol and upon mixing, the ethanol will split from the petrol and settle at the bottom of the container and the petrol will rise to the top.

To measure the density of ethanol one may use an alcohol monitoring system from Anton Paar which is very accurate density transducer that can measure density non-stop as well as read the percentage of water and also concentration of alcohol. This monitoring of density of ethanol system comprises of a density transducer as well as an MPDS evaluation unit and it gives highly accurate as well as reliable readings that help in ensuring quality control as well as monitoring of the product.

Ethanol has a greater energy density as compared with methanol and its density is less than that of water. The energy density of ethanol is not as much as that of gasoline and is merely 64 percent and so takes one hundred and fifty times the amount of ethanol to give the same amount of energy as would be produced by gasoline. This may result in higher prices being paid for ethanol as compared to gasoline prices. Put realistically, one would require four gallons of ethanol to conserve one gallon of gasoline. But, because the energy density of ethanol is less per gallon and one requires one hundred and fifty percent more ethanol, it actually works out to six gallons of ethanol instead of four.

There have been many changes in the ethanol industry since the days when Henry Ford designed him Model T to be able to run on grain alcohol produced by farmers for their own use. Since that time the oil industry was reluctant to embrace ethanol as an alternative fuel source and for many years the industry languished.

As oil shortages and high gas prices began to be more frequent, the public clamor over reduced oil prices and better availability, there has been a renewed interest in ethanol industry. When word began to spread about the availability of a new alternative fuel, people were willing to use ethanol-blended gasoline, but were unable to find a supplier except in the Midwest where corn was plentiful.

During that time the ethanol industry may have consisted of a half dozen or so refineries turning corn into alcohol for automotive fuel and they began to re-think the needs of increasing capacity. The federal Environmental Protection Agency gave them the initiative to do just that when the government passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992 followed by directions in 2005 to have 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol available for use as vehicle fuel by 2012.

Guaranteed Customers For Product

With the newer mandates coming down in 2005, the ethanol industry had the incentive to expand their facilities and with just over 100 refineries in operation in early 2006, another 56 refineries are under construction. Additionally, the EPA has directed several cities outside of California, to reduce emissions and switching to Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFAs) is one of the alternatives to meeting the mandates.

The ethanol industry has also helped other industries with their increased production, such as corn, which represents about 55 percent of the cost of producing ethanol. By products of ethanol refinement by the ethanol industry is also being made available to producers of products such as nail polish remover and paint thinners. Although there are few areas in the country that are friendly to growing cane sugar, it is also being considered by the ethanol industry for the biomass production of ethanol.

One element that tends to hamper the ethanol industry is the constant price fluctuations of corn. Before oil prices exploded in 2005, the cost of ethanol fluctuated nearly the same as gasoline. However, the corn prices go up and down, the fluctuations are more often and more noticible.

There are actually a number of different ethanol properties that are of serious importance, and it should be known first off that there are both chemical and physical ethanol properties that need to be taken into account. For instance, the first thing that you need to know is that ethanol is a monohydric primary alcohol, and it melts at -117.3 C and boils at 78.5 C.

More Information on Ethanol Properties

As well, in regards to what you need to know about ethanol properties, another one of the most important factors in reference to ethanol properties is the fact that ethanol is miscible, in that it mixes without separation, with water in all proportions and it is separated from water only with difficulty.

Basically, any ethanol that is completely free of water is called absolute ethanol, and it is incredibly important to know that ethanol forms a constant boiling mixture, or azeotrope, with water that contains at least 95% ethanol and 5% water, and which boils at 78.15 C; since the actual boiling point of this binary azeotrope is below that of pure ethanol, then thus absolute ethanol cannot be obtained by simple distillation.

However, you should not feel as though there is no way around this; if benzene is added to 95% ethanol, for instance, a ternary azeotrope of benzene, ethanol, and water, with a boiling point of 64.9 C can then form, since the proportion of water to ethanol in this particular situation is greater than that in 95% ethanol, then the water is then able to be removed from the ethanol by adding benzene and distilling off this azeotrope.

Basically there are many different properties, all of which are highly relevant to the matter of ethanol overall, and all of which must be properly understood in order to gain any sort of actual realization on the issue of ethanol in general. Furthermore, ethanol is a rather complex subject, and because it is going to be even more popular within only years, it is thus incredibly important that everyone try to learn as much about it as they can before this happens.

In order to find out more information on ethanol, there are many different things that you can do, with the best choice being to simply read and research on it yourself; you can go to your local library, or even use the Internet from the comfort of your own home and browse through the multitude of information that is offered to you on there.

In regards to the matter of an ethanol opportunity, there are many things that truly need to be taken into consideration; for instance, when speaking of an ethanol opportunity there are many things in relation to this that also must be taken properly into context.

The Ethanol Opportunity of Today

In regards to the ethanol opportunity of today, there are really and truly numerous different things that need to be taken into consideration; for instance, there are so many components in regards to ethanol itself, and most of these relate in one way or another to the ethanol opportunity that is being spoken of here.

For instance, there is the fact that ethanol is a substance which can be made from all sorts of different materials, such as organic material, wood chips, corn stalks, beets, saw grass, and so on; as well, truly, the golden opportunity for the auto industry in general is that there is a certain change ahead in regards to foreign competition in the development of multi-fuel vehicles and USA is the agricultural leader of the world, without a doubt.

Furthermore, this thus creates the opportunity for the included automakers to be able to begin to make vehicles that appeal more to the public and which will thus reduce our dependence on foreign oil; this is an incredibly important matter, especially in today s world and with the raging war that is going on with Iraq.

As well, because ethanol is now becoming more independently made, we do not have to worry so much about the negative components that are in relation to ethanol, such as: ethanol is expensive, and development and volume production will reduce the price; ethanol gets less mileage causing more frequent stops for fuel, and thus the size of fuel tanks should be increased; as well, there are as of yet not enough stations to carry it properly.

Overall, there are truly so many different factors that need to be taken into consideration in regards to ethanol as a whole, and so in order to gain a proper viewpoint on this subject, we need to take as much of it into serious consideration as we possibly can. As long as we remain steadfast on what we need to do in order to incorporate ethanol more properly in general, then we will be okay.

There is a lot that surrounds the issue of home ethanol production, and truly each and every one of these matters should be fully recognized and understood, in order for us to get a better grasp on the issue of ethanol altogether. For instance, with the matter of home ethanol production, there are so many things that need to be taken into consideration, and this is what will be discussed here.

About Home Ethanol Production

Home ethanol production is considered as being a major deal, and in regards to the matter of home ethanol production, there are some facts in particular that should really be known about, including: an acre of US corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol; the energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented, and as well, as many as three distillation steps are needed in order to separate the 8% ethanol from the 92% water.

As well, adding up the energy costs of corn production and its following conversion to ethanol, it has been found that 131,000 BTUs are needed in order to be able to make only 1 gallon of ethanol; one gallon of ethanol only has an energy value of 77,000 BTU, which is considered as being certainly not good.

Furthermore, ethanol corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about the 95 cents that it takes in order to be able to produce a gallon of gasoline; most economic analyses of corn-to-ethanol production truly overlook that of the costs of environmental damages, and corn production in the US alone erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water.

Therefore, there are so many questions in regards to the environment and in regards to life in general, as to whether or not ethanol is the proper choice; there are truly so many positive factors that stem from it, and yet many negative ones as well, and so this is a matter which is most certainly going to take some serious time and consideration to properly figure out.

However, there are some of the most brilliant people in the world who are looking closely into this situation right now, and so we can rest assured in knowing that the issue will be taken care of properly.