Are there a lot of different ways for the production of ethanol as alternative fuel? (1 Viewer)

[MysteryMoon]

There are so many ways, and just wondering which one is more correct, otherwise is any process fine? (i.e. hydration, combustion or fermentation?)

PS. Chem is not my best subject =_=

 

[Librah]

Re: Are there a lot of different ways for the production of ethanol as alternative fu

What? How do you get ethanol from combstion. Edit: Just read your ps.

Also your question kind of depends on what your trying to answer. But mostly you only need to know the 2 specific ways of getting to ethanol, which is via biomass/renewable (cellulose/sugars--->fermentation and many sub processes) resources and through non-renewable sources (hydrocarbons--->ethene/etc..)

 

[happypeople]

Re: Are there a lot of different ways for the production of ethanol as alternative fu

Hey!

There are many ways of producing ethanol.

The main ones specified in the syllabus are:

- fermentation of dilute glucose (aqueous) solution by yeast in 35 degrees celsius, anaerobic conditions etc to great an ethanol-water mixture (you should mention that fractional distillation is used to obtain near-pure ethanol in your answer)

- hydration of ethylene with dilute acid (such as dilute sulphuric acid) and temperatures of 170 degrees celsius

There's a 3rd one that is partly beyond the scope of the syllabus: getting cellulose or starch and put it through the process of acid hydrolysis (energy intensive, not needed in detail for HSC, but good idea to be aware of this process) to turn it into glucose, then fermenting that glucose using the conditions above ^

Which one is more correct, depends in part on the question being asked.

However, the main of the main method of producing ethanol would be fermentation. Hydration should also be acceptable (check with your school), but it isn't renewable like fermentation.

Hope this helps! Good luck with your studies!

 

[MysteryMoon]

Re: Are there a lot of different ways for the production of ethanol as alternative fu

Ah okay, so do both of these two processes produce ethanol as a fuel? Cuz I'm kinda confused whether these different processes make any difference to their uses of the ethanol.

 

[MysteryMoon]

Re: Are there a lot of different ways for the production of ethanol as alternative fu

Hey!

There are many ways of producing ethanol.

The main ones specified in the syllabus are:

- fermentation of dilute glucose (aqueous) solution by yeast in 35 degrees celsius, anaerobic conditions etc to great an ethanol-water mixture (you should mention that fractional distillation is used to obtain near-pure ethanol in your answer)

- hydration of ethylene with dilute acid (such as dilute sulphuric acid) and temperatures of 170 degrees celsius

There's a 3rd one that is partly beyond the scope of the syllabus: getting cellulose or starch and put it through the process of acid hydrolysis (energy intensive, not needed in detail for HSC, but good idea to be aware of this process) to turn it into glucose, then fermenting that glucose using the conditions above ^

Which one is more correct, depends in part on the question being asked.

However, the main of the main method of producing ethanol would be fermentation. Hydration should also be acceptable (check with your school), but it isn't renewable like fermentation.

Hope this helps! Good luck with your studies!

Thanks so much! I get it now

 

[happypeople]

Re: Are there a lot of different ways for the production of ethanol as alternative fu

The end ethanol-water mixture from fermentation and the acid hydrolysis process must be fractionally distilled to get near pure ethanol (about 96% ethanol w/w), which can then be used as a fuel.

Hope this helps!