Ethanol (alcohol)

What is ethanol?

Ethanol is an alcohol, which makes it an organic chemical. Ethanol (boiling point around 78°C) is the alcohol contained in alcoholic beverages. In pure, but denatured form it is referred to as spirit and used as a fuel, for example for camping stoves or ethanol stoves, but also as a solvent, cleaning agent and disinfectant.

Ethanol has a calorific value of about 7.4 kilowatt hours per kilogram, or about 5.9 kilowatt hours per liter. So calculated by volume, its calorific value is approximately 40% lower than that of heating oil and about 35% lower than that of petrol/gasoline.

In addition to being produced by the alcoholic fermentation of biomass (e.g. sugar beet, potatoes, cereals - see bioethanol), ethanol is also produced synthetically from ethylene for industrial purposes. This involves the synthesis of ethylene and water. Ethylene is a commonly used organic base chemical, which is also used in the production of plastics. It can be made from a variety of hydrocarbons such as naphtha or gasoil, but ethylene and finally ethanol can also be produced from gases (ethane, propane).

Ethanol can be used as a fuel component – usually as an admixture to petrol/gasoline. E10, for example, is a mixture of 10 vol.% ethanol and 90 vol.% gasoline. For further information, see bioethanol.

Status: December 2015
All information subject to change. Errors and omissions excepted.