In my previous report, I talked about green chemistry and its principles. In this report, I would like to talk about bioethanol.

One of the principles of Green chemistry is related to the use of renewable resources instead of fossil ones. Today, it is no secret that the planet's fossil resources are being depleted. In this regard, there is a need to switch to those resources that can be replenished. More strictly speaking, renewable natural resources are those resources that either recover faster than they are used (or their recovery rate is comparable to the rate of expenditure), or do not depend on whether they are used or not. For example, renewable natural resources include plant raw materials (wood, cereals, etc.).

Some resources that are considered renewable do not actually recover and will eventually be exhausted. These include, for example, solar and geothermal energy. The" green " direction of development of the chemical industry is the synthesis of fuel from biological renewable raw materials (biofuels). To date, there are a large number of projects on this topic, offering processing of sugar cane stalks or rapeseed, corn, soy.

Today, the main types of "vegetable" fuel used for gasoline engines are biodiesel and bioethanol. The latter is produced from sugar beets, wheat, corn and sugar cane. In fact, this is an ordinary alcohol, which is produced for the needs of energy, of course, there are its own technological features.
As an automobile fuel, ethanol is superior to gasoline in some respects. It contains much less impurities (for example, sulfur), and the octane number according to the research method reaches 125 units. However, it is not yet possible to fill most production cars with bioethanol in its pure form. Therefore, ethanol is sometimes used as a high-octane additive in conventional gasoline, and the corresponding fuel is marked with the letter E, for example, the marking of gasoline E10 (10% ethanol).

Ethanol helps reduce greenhouse gases, boiler and car exhaust emissions, toxic substances and aerosols in the atmosphere. This is the equivalent of 1 million cars disappearing from the road every year (with current production in the US of 16 billion liters).

The largest distribution of biofuels is in Brazil, where the fossil reserves are small, but the climate is quite conducive to growing plant materials. Another advantage of biofuels is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, this does not mean that the combustion of biofuels produces less carbon dioxide. When biofuels are burned, carbon that was previously absorbed by plants is returned to the atmosphere, so the planet's carbon balance remains unchanged. At the same time, when burning fossil fuels, "preserved" carbon enters the atmosphere.

Here are some more interesting facts about ethanol:

- Ethanol is biodegradable and does not pollute natural water systems.
- Ethanol is a renewable resource, while the formation of fossil fuels (coal, oil) takes millions of years.

- Using 10% ethanol blends reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 12-19% compared to conventional gasoline, according to Argonne National Laboratory. For example, in 2004, the use of ethanol reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 7 million tons, which is comparable to the annual emissions of a million cars (Argonne's GREET 1.6 Model).
- The American Pulmonological Association (Chicago) confirms that the use of ethanol-modified gasoline has reduced smog-forming emissions by 25% since 1990.
- Ethanol reduces carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by as much as 30% - even in new cars.
- Ethanol reduces the particulate content of the exhaust by 50%. These fumes pose a threat to children, the elderly, and people with respiratory diseases. Ethanol also reduces the formation of secondary dust by reducing the amount of aromatic hydrocarbons in gasoline.

- Ethanol reduces exhaust toxicity by 21%.

As we can see, bioethanol is an extremely promising substance that has a positive impact on the environment.

Source: http://biotoplivo.ru/bioetanol/