2)combustion of ethanol

2)Combustion of Ethanol

The upcoming equation shows the combustion of ethanol producing carbon dioxide and water.

C2H5OH (l) +3O2 (g) -----à2CO2 (g) + 3H20 (l)

Also this table shows the heat combustion value of some alcohols.

	Heat combustion
Fuel	KJ/gram	KJ/MOL
Methanol	22.7	726
Ethanol	29.7	1367
Propanol	33.6	2021
Butanol	36.1	2676

When comparing alcohols with one another the trend noticed is the heat combustion increase with the increasing molecule size. Therefore, ethanol has a lower heat combustion value than petroleum fuels thus; it is an ideal potential fuel due to its low energy fuel.  

The recycle of Ethanol(cabon cycle)

As shown in the previous figure ethanol is a suitable renewable alternate fuel made from carbon dioxide, water and sunlight (from photosynthesis). When it undergoes combustion it releases CO₂ and water which is absorbed by plants and reconverted. 

This helps reduce greenhouse effect condition, only recently has the Australian government encouraged using of only 10% ethanol fuel consumption. The reason being is because use 100% pure ethanol a totally new engine is required to be designed because of the different properties   such as ignition temperature, corrosive , different energy content and burning leaving factories redesign new engines. In the future, it will be  unlikely to use more than 20% ethanol as in fuel because of the high production cost.

 In addition, 75% of the world’s Arable land will need to grow ethanol crops to sustain the demand.