Bioethanol

Bioethanol (known as white spirits, ethanol, EtOH, ethyl alcohol or simply as 'alcohol') is a kind of biofuel that it is made of different biomass materials, for instance corn, beet, bulbs, potato or wood.

When bioethanol operates as a car fuel (referred to as E85) it contains around 80 per cent alcohol and the rest is gasoline. There are kinds of fuels that consist of only 50 per cent alcohol (referred to as E50) and 50 per cent petrol used today in cars. However, there are scientific innovation that allow the use of E100 as car fuels.

As of today, all normal cars can include ten per cent bioethanol in their fuel without any special needs for technical readjustment. There are some gas stations today which allow the use of bioethanol as fuel additive. In addition, there are FFC (Flexi Fuel Cars) or FFV (Flexi Fuel Vehicles) that are built in advance to enable the use of 80 per cent bioethanol (E85).

Bioethanol is positively poled at the C-atom. It has no color; it is highly inflammatory and strongly smelly. It is exothermic with H2O and so it binds the latter. It is also a compound characterized by lipophilicity; that is, it dissolves in liquids.

Bioethanol's most noticeable advantage is its nonpolluting qualities. It does not emit greenhouse gases. Yet it does not lack problems. First, to produce the same amount of energy, it requires about 33 to 80 per cent more mass in comparison to gasoline. For example, energy produced from 1 litter of gasoline will require 1.4 littels of E85 and 1.8 litters of ethanol to create the same effect. Second, production costs are higher than those of petrol fuels. The cost of producing bioethanol may double those of producing gasoline. That is why, in different countries special tax exemptions are given to the bioethanol industry.
Despite all of disadvantages mentioned above, the bioethanol industry is on the increase. In the European continent, many countries are gradually switching to bioethanol as s supplement to fossile fuels. In Sweden the production of alcoholic fuels is the most common. Most of the bioethanol produced there is based on the E85. Brazil is another country that excels in this field. According to 2007 statistics, there are 18 million vehicles in Brazil that work on E85. There are close to 2.5 cars that drive on pure ethanol! The United States, unfortunately, still lags behind.

It is inevitable that in the future fossil fuels will have to be transformed into biofuels, and bioethanol in particular, that are less politically, economically and environmentally costly.
 

02.05.2008. 01:27