Ethanol in gasoline

This is the most economical process to produce ethanol, but laws prohibit drinking synthetic ethanol so beverages are made much more expensively by fermentation of sugar or carbohydrates. Recent laws also mandate the addition of 10% ethanol in gasoline in cities during the winter, supposedly to reduce pollution. However, grain processors lobbied to require renewable resources so fermentation is required to produce this fuel alcohol. 

Like methanol, ethanol is a good motor fuel, with similar advantages and disadvantages. The race cars at the Indianapolis 500 have used ethanol as their primary fuel since 2006. A car s carburetor must be adjusted (for a richer mixture) and fitted with alcohol-resistant seals if it is to run on pure ethanol. Solutions of about 10% ethanol in gasoline ( gasohol ) work well without any adjustments, however. 

Car engines can burn pure alcohol or gasohol, an alcohol-gasoline mixture (10% ethanol in gasoline), with little modification. Gasohol is now widely available in the United States. The use of pure alcohol as a motor fuel is not feasible in most of the United States because it does not vaporize easily when temperatures are low. However, pure ethanol could be a very practical fuel in warm climates. For example, in Brazil large quantities of ethanol fuel are produced for cars. 

Dissolving solutes in liquids is very common. We dissolve salt in the water used to cook vegetables, sugar in iced tea, stains in cleaning fluid, gaseous carbon dioxide in water to make soda water, ethanol in gasoline to make gaso-hol, and so on. 

The butanols and their methyl and ethyl ethers have several advantages as oxygenates over methanol and ethanol in gasoline blends. Their energy contents are closer to those of gasoline the compatibility and miscibility problems with petroleum fuels are nil excessive vapor pressure and volatility problems do not occur and they are water tolerant and can be transported in gasoline blends by pipeline without danger of phase separation due to moisture absorption. Fermentation processes (Weizmann process) have been developed for simultaneous production of 1-butanol, 2-propanol, acetone, and ethanol from... 

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