Outline, step by step, preparation of ethanol from crude oil.
Answers
Explanation:
The process of ethanol fuel production involves fermentation, distillation, and dehydration. The general process is shown below. The process begins with photosynthesis, during which plants make sugar which is broken down into ethanol.
Adding these three reactions and balancing, the net reaction simply becomes light → heat. In the first step, ethanol is produced by microbial fermentation of sugars (i.e. starch and cellulose). Currently, only the sugar and starch portions can be economically converted into ethanol. In the next step, distillation, the water is removed from the ethanol. The purity is limited to approximately 95% at this step due to the formation of a low-boiling water-ethanol azeotrope. This azeotrope can be used as fuel on its own, but it is immiscible in gasoline; further distillation is therefore necessary in order for the mixture to burn with gasoline in gasoline engines. This further distillation occurs during the dehydration process, when extra water is removed from the solution.
Answer: