Ethanol is an alcohol of vegetable origin used as fuel for vehicles, an alternative and renewable energy source. Ethanol, alcohol or ethyl alcohol refers to the same substance.
Ethanol is extracted from raw materials, planted and harvested every season, including sugarcane, corn, wheat, barley, etc. with sugarcane being the most productive, where the manufacturing process is carried out in large mills.
Ethanol is part of biofuels, including biodiesel and biogas, energy sources that emit much less polluting gases compared to fossil fuels.
Ethanol, in addition to being used as fuel, in its pure form or mixed with gasoline, is also a matter industrial raw, widely used in the manufacture of perfumes, cleaning materials, solvents, paints etc.
Hydrous ethanol and anhydrous ethanol
Hydrous ethanol is the common ethanol sold at service stations, while anhydrous ethanol, also called pure ethanol or absolute ethanol, is that blended with gasoline. The difference between them concerns the amount of water present in each one.
Hydrated ethanol has in its composition between 95% ethanol and the rest of water, while anhydrous ethanol has an average of 99.6% of alcohol content.
second generation ethanol
Second-generation ethanol or cellulosic ethanol is that produced from biomass from various sources, including straw, bagasse and sugarcane leaves. It is another alternative for reducing the emission of polluting gases into the atmosphere.
With second generation technology, the co-products undergo a destructuring process and are transformed into soluble sugars. In the fermentation stage, sugar is converted to ethanol which is purified in distillation. The composition of second-generation ethanol is the same as that of conventional ethanol.