Comparison of the production of ethanol by fermentation and the reaction of Ethene with steam

Fermentation of Carbohydrates
C6H12O6 2 CH3CH2OH + 2 CO2 C12H22O11 + H2O 4 CH3CH2OH + 4CO2

Reaction of Ethene with Steam

C2H4 + H2O CH3CH2OH

Fermentation only needs to be kept warm at say around 35C which obviously uses less energy As this is a natural process no different pressures are required so only the pressure of the normal atmosphere is required which means that no extra energy is required to form this pressure, only an air tight vessel is required in order to keep oxygen out which would react unwantedly producing carboxylic acids In this reaction to produce ethanol there is no catalyst required besides perhaps the addition of yeast Usually a starch - carbohydrate based crop such as maize, wheat, barley or potatoes. These contain complex carbohydrates and are therefore heated with malt which contains amylase and other enzymes which break down the carbohydrates into simpler sugars such as maltose. Yeast is then required to ferment the disaccharides to form ethanol The crops used are all renewable carbon neutral sources as any carbon produced by burning the produced ethanol was taken in by the plant during photosynthesis in the first place This process is discontinuous as the fermentation and crop growing both take longer periods of time and a yield is only obtained at the end of these phases so ethanol is not able to be constantly produced The reaction rate by fermentation is very slow with respect to the hydration of ethene meaning that to obtain larger yields larger facilities that must lie dormant for large periods of time as the mixture ferments are required Fermentation is a cheaper production mechanism of ethanol as high amounts

Carried out at 300C which means lots of energy is required to reach this temperature A pressure of 60 70 atmospheres is used as the higher pressure favors the product as there is only a single product with respect to the multiple reactants. Pressures higher than this are not used to prevent the formation of poly(ethene) A catalyst of phosphoric (V) acid absorbed onto a porous support such as silica gel is commonly used Ethene and water as gasses at 300C. The ethene is obtained from the fractional distillation and cracking of crude oil

The ethene is obtained from crude oil which is a non renewable source. Water is easily obtained and is in large supply as a renewable component This is a continuous process that can be adapted to produce the amount of ethanol required without much notice (providing the infrastructure is present) The relative reaction rate is very fast and so ethanol can be produced rapidly without delay

The hydration of ethene with steam to produce ethanol is a more costly

Comparison of the production of ethanol by fermentation and the reaction of Ethene with steam of energy are not required to sustain the reaction conditions that are used. Less manpower is required for this process however it takes a far longer time and so leaves great expanses of land unusable for long periods when it could be put to other economic benefit. operation as the reaction conditions require great deals of energy to allow the reaction to run its course at the stated levels. Additionally there are greater labour costs as more experienced and skilled workers are required to operate the machinery associated with this process The purity of fermented ethene with Ethanol produced in this way is pure if steam is far lower than that of hydrated the small amount of water and ethane ethene. This purity requires lots of is removed by fractional distillation refining and further processing in order to reach a desirable product of ethanol The yield from fermentation is far Around 5% of the reactants form lower than that of hydrating ethene ethanol on each passing over the and requires far more refining and catalyst but a total yield of around 95% distillation in order to achieve greater is achieved puritys The raw crops could be used as food Crude oil has many uses so the ethene stuffs and so by using them in the used in this production of ethanol could production of ethanol the amount of be seen as a waste of a resource that is available food is reduced which in a running out as it is possible to produce world that is already starved is a ethanol in different ways such as questionable decision fermentation As a farming process is the start to this This is an industrial process and so a process, farmers are required as well as full factory workforce is involved in its staff to orchestrate the fermentation production providing many jobs. process, the farming staff especially could be differently deployed to produce food for the starving world. This is therefore a batch process This farming fermentation production The factory site for this production of of ethanol requires a lot of land with ethanol does not take up much room respect to the amount of ethanol with respect to the amount of ethanol produced as the land is required to produced and so is geographically grow the crops to ferment. This land stable could be used to grow crops for food and so this process can be seen as a waste of land area