Ethanol [64-17-5] or ethyl alcohol, CH3CH2OH, is one of the most versatile oxygen-containing organic chemicals because of its unique combination of properties as a solvent, a germicide, an antifreeze, a fuel, and especially as a chemical intermediate for other organic chemicals.
Recently, Ethanol is demanded in a huge market as fuel. This compound, is a replacement for methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as an oxygenate for fuels.
Fermented ethanol was produced as early as 3000 B.C. The distillation process probably orginated in the 10 – 14th centuries. At this time, The wine distillates were used for medicinal rather than beverage purposes. The nature of fermentation was initially clarified in the 19th century with the discovery of the microscope, which showed that yeast cells were living organisms. However, recognition of the fact that these living organisms are responsible for the fermentation process took about 150 years.
In the 19th century, two theories were developed to explain the mechanism of fermentation: the ‘‘mechanistic’’ and the ‘‘vital’’ processes. LOUIS PASTEUR (1822 – 1895) promoted the vital theory, which stated that living organisms were responsible for the conversion of sugar to alcohol. A convincing proof of the mechanistic mechanism, by which physicochemical processes lead to chemical conversion of sugar to ethanol, came from EDWARD BUCHNER (1860 – 1917), who demonstrated that alcoholic fermentation is related not to the living cell but to a substance in the fermentation broth, which was later identified as an enzyme. As is now known, enzymes are ultimately responsible for the complex conversion of carbohydrates to ethanol.
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[1] Lodgsdon JE (2004). “Ethanol”. In Howe-Grant M, Kirk RE, Othmer DF, Kroschwitz JI (eds.). Encyclopedia of chemical technology
[1] Kosaric N, Duvnjak Z, Farkas A, Sahm H, Bringer-Meyer S, Goebel O, Mayer D (2011). “Ethanol”. Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.
