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Manufacturing of Ethanol

There are two main methods for producing ethanol: catalytic hydration of ethene and fermentation of sugars with yeast. The catalytic hydration method involves passing ethene and steam over a phosphoric acid catalyst at 300°C and 60 atm. Ethanol produced by this method is used mainly as an industrial solvent and in pharmaceuticals. Fermentation uses yeast to convert carbohydrates into ethanol in the absence of air, and has been used for centuries to produce alcoholic beverages from fruits, grains, honey, and other materials containing sugars. The fermented mixture is then distilled to increase the ethanol concentration.

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Emmanuel Chichester
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70 views3 pages

Manufacturing of Ethanol

There are two main methods for producing ethanol: catalytic hydration of ethene and fermentation of sugars with yeast. The catalytic hydration method involves passing ethene and steam over a phosphoric acid catalyst at 300°C and 60 atm. Ethanol produced by this method is used mainly as an industrial solvent and in pharmaceuticals. Fermentation uses yeast to convert carbohydrates into ethanol in the absence of air, and has been used for centuries to produce alcoholic beverages from fruits, grains, honey, and other materials containing sugars. The fermented mixture is then distilled to increase the ethanol concentration.

Uploaded by

Emmanuel Chichester
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Manufacturing of Ethanol

There are two industrial ways of producing ethanol. One method is the catalytic hydration of
ethene and the second method is the fermentation of sugars with yeast.

Hydration of Ethene

Ethanol is produced by the catalytic hydration of ethene. Ethene and steam is passed over a
phosphoric acid catalyst at about 300oC and 60 atm

Equation in book

Ethanol produced by this method is mainly used in industries as a solvent and in manufacturing a
wide range of pharmaceutical products.

Fermentation

The drink industry is a big business. For example, the rum industry in Jamaica is worth about 45
million dollars in exports. Alcoholic drinks include beer, wine, and spirits such as rum, whiskey,
and gin. Fermentation has been used by humans for centuries in the production of alcohol.
Fermentation is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using yeast or
bacteria in the absence of air. Any vegetable material can be used as starting material as long as
they contain sugar and starch which can be broken down into simple sugars such as glucose. In
the production of alcoholic drinks, yeast reacts/acts on glucose or sucrose in the absence of air to
produce CO2 and ethanol.

Alcoholic drinks are produced from the fermentation of sugars in fruit juice. This is brought
about by a group of enzymes present in yeast, a unicellular fungus. Yeast secretes the enzyme,
invertase which catalyzes the conversion of sucrose to glucose and fructose. The simple sugars
are then converted to carbon dioxide and ethanol by another enzyme, zymase, which is also
produced by the yeast.
Glucose is mixed with water and yeast at a temperature of about 15oC to 40oC depending on the
type of alcoholic beverage required. Temperature is very important:

 Too low a temperate will cause the enzymes to work too slowly and increase the
possibility of unwanted bacterial fermentation.
 Too high a temperature will alter the cell structure of the yeast, the proteins will have the
incorrect structure to catalyze the reaction. The proteins become denatured at high
temperatures.

It is important to keep air out of the reaction because

 To prevent the oxidation of the ethanol to ethanoic acid


 Side reactions may occur due to the bacterial action in the presence of air

Fermented drinks made usually depend on the type of material used in the plant

 Beers are made from cereals and starchy materials


 Wine and ciders from fruit juice
 Mead from honey

Distillation (Fractional)

The fermented mixture is concentrated by fractional distillation. This involves the successive
vaporization and condensation of the mixture along a fractionating column. As the vapour rises
up the column, it becomes richer in the volatile component of the liquid from which it distils.

A mixture of ethanol and water can be separated completely by distillation because it forms an
azeotropic mixture with a minimum boiling point. The boiling point of ethanol is 78.3oC, water
is 100oC while the azeotropic mixture which contains 95% ethanol and 5% water has a boiling
point of 78.15oC.

In distillation, the most volatile component (the component with the lowest boiling point) distills
off first. So in the case of the azeotropic mixture with 95% ethanol and 5% water which has the
lowest melting point will distill off first. So no matter the efficient the fractionating column is,
85% alcohol cannot be further concentrated by distillation.

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