Energy Source

1. Description

Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, (CH₃CH₂OH) is a renewable alcohol fuel made from abundant agricultural resources.

Ethanol is primarily produced from the starch contained in grains such as sugarcane, corn, grain sorghum, and wheat through a fermentation and distillation process that converts starch to sugar and then to alcohol. Ethanol can also be produced from food and beverage processing wastes, and research is underway that will enable the production of ethanol from cellulose, including corn stalks, rice straw and switchgrass.

2. History of alcohol in the world

In past, the production of alcohol was considered as a special scientific skill. Later, the well-known French chemist, Gay-Lussac verified that glucose is the major saccharose and the initiator of ethanol fermentation. Finally, the role of ferment in the fermentation process was proved in 1837 and subsequently, Pasteur discovered the anaerobe feature of ferment and alcohol production entered the industrial phase.

Alcohol is gained from sweet materials and its production is presently considered as one of the by-products of sugar industry due to its low cost. Molasses is gained through the sugar production process.

Molasses is a juice containing non-crystallized saccharose, non-saccharose solids remaining from sugar cane or sugar beet, remaining chemicals from the production process and little water.

Molasses usually forms 4% of the weight of sugar cane or sugar beet; in other words, molasses forms 40% of the manufactured sugar (considering sugar cane or sugar beet).

According to the statistics of F.O.Lichts in 2002-2003, the total production of sugar in the world is 148845 million tons; thus, it can be estimated that the total molasses gained is 59540 million tons and 8335 billion liter alcohol can be produced from said amount.