Use of Bioethanol

Nowadays bioethanol is the most widespread biofuel.

Especially in those countries with abundant food production, raw material for bioethanol can be easily available thus cost is minimized. In addition, government of those countries, including China, USA, Brazil and Australia, is providing subsidize to encourage those companies to produce cleaner energy sources like bioethanol etc. The by-products also can be used to do other thing in an eco friendly way thus the end products won’t affect the environment also.

In Brazil, due to the large production of sugar cane, bioethanol is used occasionally to power cars and in the United States biofuels are used from corn. In Britain, although bioethanol is rarely used, it is available in a number of fuel stations as ethanol can be mixed with either petrol or diesel in small quantities however Citroen released the new C8 in 2006 which is capable of running on 30% ethanol fuel. Engines where ethanol can be mixed have been specially modified.

Due to the widespread of interest shown by consumers, researchers in the future aim to invent engines capable of running only on ethanol resulting in greater efficiency.

Uses:

Chemicals

A number of chemicals are produced in the ethanol industry and potentially even more in the 2nd generation bioethanol industry, serving a wide range of uses in the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, beverages and medical sectors as well as for industrial uses.

The market potential for bioethanol is therefore not just limited to transport fuel or energy production but has potential to supply the existing chemicals industry.

Transport Fuel

Bioethanol has mostly been used as a biofuel for transport, especially in Brazil. Indeed it was in Brazil where the first bioethanol fuelled cars emerged on a large-scale. Although generally unknown to the average consumer who fills up their car with petrol, a large volume of bioethanol is already used in Europe as it is blended with petrol at 5%. It is used as a substitute for lead as an oxygenating additive and has a high octane rating, which improves performance. Although the eventual target is the private consumer, only a few regions have good public awareness, namely Sweden and Germany, of bioethanol's potenial to, at least, partly replace petrol as a transport fuel in Europe.

In addition supermarkets who operate petrol stations are seeing the opportunity to provide petrol/ethanol blends from 5-85% (E5-E85). Even though most experts agree that up to a 10% mix will not damage modern car engines, the manufacturer warranty for standard cars is set at 5%. To maintain the warranty the car engines need to be modified to support higher proportion fuel mixes or one has to buy a fuel flexible vehicle (FFV, also known as a flex-fuel vehicle).

Fuel Cells

Fuel cells are another potential area for ethanol use to produce heat and power. Fuel cells function by combining the fuel hydrogen with oxygen from the air to produce electrical energy, with water vapour and heat as by-products. Fuel Cells have a typical electrical efficiency of between 30 and 60 % and an overall efficiency, if using the heat by-product, of 70- 90 %. The units run with very low noise emissions and pollutant gas emissions are also reduced considerably. Its disadvantages are its relatively high cost and their short life span (regular replacement of components). They are, however, regarded as very reliable for the duration of their lifespan and are often used for emergency power. Some uses of fuel cell

CHP systems include providing heat and power for hospitals, university campus', remote telecommunication stations as well as for transport, stationary power generation and residential buildings. The recent growth in small residential (0.5 to 10 kWe) fuel cell CHP is based on natural gas fuelled units.