Ethyl+Alcohol

=Ethyl Alcohol (CH3CH2OH)= = = Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a [|volatile], [|flammable] , colorless liquid. It is a [|psychoactive drug] and one of the oldest [|recreational drugs]. Best known as the type of [|alcohol] found in [|alcoholic beverages], it is also used in [|thermometers] , as a [|solvent] , and as a [|fuel]. In common usage, it is often referred to simply asalcohol or [|spirits] **.**

The alcohol found in alcoholic beverages is **ethyl alcohol**(ethanol). The molecular structure of ethanol looks like this:
 * H H 3 C - C - O - H H.**




 * Fermentation of Sugar Into Alcohol **

The fermentation of sugar into ethanol is one of the earliest bio-technologies employed by humanity. The intoxicating effects of ethanol consumption have been known since ancient times. Ethanol has been used by humans since prehistory as the intoxicating ingredient of alcoholic beverages. Dried residue on 9,000-year-old pottery found in China imply that Neolithic people consumed alcoholic beverages. Although distillation was well known by the early Greeks and Arabs, the first recorded production of alcohol from distilled wine was by the School of Salerno alchemists in the 12th century. The first to mention absolute alcohol, in contrast with alcohol-water mixtures, was Raymond Lull. In 1796, Johann Tobias Lowitz obtained pure ethanol by filtering distilled ethanol through activated charcoal. Antoine Lavoisier described ethanol as a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and in 1808 Nicolas-Théodore de Saussure determined ethanol's chemical formula. Fifty years later, Archibald Scott Couper published the structural formula of ethanol. It is one of the first structural formulas determined. Ethanol was first prepared synthetically in 1826 through the independent efforts of Henry Hennel in Great Britain and S.G. Sérullas in France. In 1828, Michael Faraday prepared ethanol by acid-catalyze, hydration of ethylene, a process similar to current industrial ethanol synthesis. Ethanol was used as lamp fuel in the United States as early as 1840, but a tax levied on industrial alcohol during the Civil War made this use uneconomical. The tax was repealed in 1906. Original Ford Model T automobiles ran on ethanol until 1908. With the advent of Prohibition in 1920, ethanol fuel sellers were accused of being allied with moonshiners, and ethanol fuel fell into disuse until late in the 20th century. In modern times, ethanol intended for industrial use is also produced from ethylene. Ethanol has widespread use as a solvent of substances intended for human contact or consumption, including scents, flavorings, colorings, and medicines. In chemistry, it is both an essential solvent and a feedstock for the synthesis of other products. It has a long history as a fuel for heat and light, and more recently as a fuel for internal combustion engines.


 * Traditionally, industrial ethanol is manufactured via the acid catalyzed hydration of ethylene.
 * One synthetic route of alcohol by hydration of ethene involves the use of concentrated sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ).
 * Current technology allows alcohol to be produced by utilization of zeolites or silica aerogels impregnated with phosphoric or tungstic acid.
 * Of the alcohols produced, ethanol is particularly useful in industrial applications because of its relatively high affinity for both water and organic compounds.
 * One problem with the industrial production and utilization of ethanol is that ethanol is the alcohol found in beverages.
 * Industrially produced ethanol has many uses including use in solvent based paints, pharmaceuticals, perfumes, cleaning products for home and car, lacquers, and inks.
 * Since ethanol contains only one partially oxidized carbon atom, it is flammable and can be used as a fuel.
 * The usual ratio of ethanol to gasoline is ninety parts gasoline to 10 parts ethanol while that for methanol is 97 parts gasoline to 3 parts methanol.
 * This method has been chosen due to the relative low cost of the ethylene.

> > | > > O > > | > > substrate || +H2O --> || HOCH2CH3 + || H2 PO3 > > | > > O > > | > > substrate || >
 * H2C = CH2 + || H2PO3