U.S. ethanol producers produce about 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol a year, mostly from corn. As the demand for ethanol increases, other biomass sources such as agricultural and forestry waste, municipal solid waste, industrial waste and crops used only for energy purposes will be used to make ethanol. Research activities over the past 20 years have developed technologies to convert these feedstocks into ethanol. Currently, fuel ethanol is produced from sugars and starches that are easily fermentable from grains and food processing waste. Soon, new technologies for converting plant fiber into ethanol will become economically viable. Thus, a portion of agricultural and forestry residues (corn stalks, straw, leaves, branches) that are currently burned or left in the field can be harvested for biofuel production. There are many benefits to combining an established corn ethanol industry with emerging technologies for ethanol production from agricultural waste and other types of biomass.
Ethanol is a flammable liquid with an explosive vapor concentration of 3.3 -- 19.0% (v/ V) in air. However, flammability is not a serious problem in industrial environments, as long as there is proper ventilation, this also prevents ethanol from causing serious problems as an industrial poison. The compound can be detected in the nose to 350 PPM, and higher levels to 5,000 to 10,000 PPM can irritate the eyes and upper respiratory mucosa, according to the report. Concentrations above these values quickly become unbearable, leading to severe coughing and tearing. However, because ethanol is easily oxidized in the body to water and carbon dioxide, it is not a cumulative poison. Alcoholism is usually caused by drinking liquid ethanol from alcoholic beverages rather than inhaling it. It is this distinction that dominates the main applications needed for ethanol determination, measuring concentration levels in all types of alcoholic beverages, as well as blood ethanol levels in humans after drinking alcoholic beverages. These two main areas will be considered in detail.
The concentration of ethanol at the entrance plus the ethanol produced is equal to the ethanol in the exit stream as the unreacted reactant plus the ethanol consumed. For every mole of acetic acid, one mole of ethanol is used. Ethanol consumption is:
Assume that all ethanol (100%) is absorbed by bacteria and that no ethanol is produced or vaporized. This means that the ethanol in the ethanol is equal to the ethanol consumed during the oxidation process.
