KNOWLEDGE OF ALCOHOL

FOR FUEL

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CHAFTER ONE

Principles of Alcohol Production For Fuel

Two types of alcohol will work equally well for fuel.

They are ethanol and methanol. we refer to ethanol

when we speak of alcohol, unless we specifically say

methanol.

Alcohol content is measured in proof. The proof is

twice the percent. Thus 100 proof alcohol is 50% alcohol

and 50% water. 200 proof alcohol is 100% alcohol.

ETHANOL

Ethanol is also called ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. All industrial ethanol
was produced

from grain fermentation until the industry discovered they could make it cheaper
from

petroleum. This was in pre-OPEC days.

The ethanol industry was geared to producing high-purity industrial alcohol or
drinkable

alcohol. For this reason, they were locked in to using stainless steel and
copper

equipment, and also to the process of distillation. Distillation served not only
to separate

the alcohol from the water, but to separate other impurities from the alcohol -
impurities

that might make a person sick if he drank it.

That is why the fuel alcohol industry started with technology developed for the
liquor and

industrial alcohol industry. That was all the technology there was. As more
people

experiment with making alcohol strictly for fuel, ways will quickly be found to
do

it cheaper when we get away from the traditional thinking of the old distillers.
Ethanol

can be made from anything containing starch or sugar. The higher the starch or
sugar

content, the higher is the alcohol potential of the crop.

Cellulose in stalks, wood or paper can also be used to make ethanol, but the
process is

expensive with present technology.

Starch is the most important storage form of carbohydrates in the plant kingdom.

However, another significant form is inulin. Artichokes, Dahlias and Dandelions
all store

carbohydrates as inulin. The inulin is made up of fructose molecules instead of
glucose,

as in starch.

It has been found that most of the carbohydrate is stored in the Jerusalem
artichoke

stem before the bulb starts to form. If it is stored as fructose, and if it does
not change to

inulin soon after harvesting, the fructose can be fermented as is. But if it is
inulin,

we know of no commercial, economical enzymes available to break down inulin.
(Bitter

almonds do contain inulinase.) The carbohydrate can be broken down with high
heat

and strong acid, but with a lot of energy input and 20% or more destruction of
the

sugar.

If the fructose in the stem is useable, the tops can be cut off and the bulb
left in the

ground to grow again.

FERMENTATION

Enzymes break down starch into simple sugars, and yeast ferments sugars into

ethanol, giving off carbon dioxide gas as a by product. The process has been

used since civilization began. Starch is made up of long chains of glucose

molecules coiled together. The starch must be broken down into sugars that are

only one or two molecules long for the yeast to feed on.

In the process described in this book, the liquefying enzyme breaks the chemical

bonds at random inside the chain, producing shorter chains, or dextrins, as they

are called.

The saccharifying enzyme works on the end of the chain only. It could take off

the glucose molecules one by one from the ends of the starch chains and

eventually would convert all the starch to sugar. The liquefying enzyme gives
the

saccharifying enzyme more ends to work on, however, and speeds up the

process considerably.

There are other monosaccharicles (one molecule only) besides glucose, but

glucose is the most common.

Disaccharides are two monosaccharicles joined together.

Table sugar (sucrose) is one glucose and one fructose molecule.

Milk sugar, or lactose, is one galactose and one glucose joined together.

Maltose is a disaccharide made up of two glucoses.

Yeast can ferment glucose, maltose, and sucrose rapidly, and galactose and

lactose slowly.

Enzymes are proteins that change a chemical entity, or molecule, of one

substance into a molecule of something else. The enzyme acts on the

substance, but is not used up. The enzyme changes one molecule, then

detaches from it and works on another molecule. A few molecules of enzyme will

eventually get around to all the molecules of whatever it works on, but the
right

amount of enzyme will do the job faster.

People have enzymes in their mouths that break down starch. If you hold a piece

of soda cracker in your mouth, it will begin to taste sweet. This is exactly the

process that takes place in the mash. Enzymes are highly specialized. Each one

does only one thing. In this process, one enzyme chops up the long chains of

starch into shorter chains. Another enzyme changes the short chains of starch

into sugar.

Enzymes, like humans, function within a fairly narrow range of physical

conditions. They must have a certain temperature and degree of acidity. They

can be rendered useless by chemical poisons, heavy metals, high heat, etc.

Each enzyme has a certain set of conditions under which it works best.

When grain sprouts, enzymes change the starch into sugar that the new plant

can use for food. Before enzymes were avail-able for purchase, grain was



sprouted, or .malted,. then dried, ground, and mixed with the rest of the grain
as

a source of enzymes.

This method can still be used, but it is quicker to use commercially available

enzymes. Starch can be broken down without enzymes with strong acid and high

heat. However, the process takes a lot of time and energy, and then the excess

acid has to be neutralized with alkali before fermentation can take place. After

the starch is changed to sugar by enzymes, yeast changes the sugar to alcohol

in the absence of air. The process is called fermentation, and it takes about
21/2

days.

Carbon dioxide gas is produced as the yeast changes sugar to Alcohol. A bushel

of grain yields by weight about 1/3 carbon dioxide, 1/3 ethanol, and 1/3
highprotein

residue. The carbon dioxide gas can be allowed to escape through an air

lock or a one-way vent valve, or it can be collected and used.

The fermented mash contains about 10% alcohol. At this concentration, the

alcohol begins to kill the yeast. The batching should be done so that all the
sugar

and starch in the mash will have been used up by the time this10%alcohol

content is reached. It takes 13 pounds of sugar to yield 1 gallon of 190 proof

ethanol. The amount of raw material in the mash will be determined by its starch

and sugar content. In order to get fuel alcohol, the alcohol content must be

increased from 10% to 90 - 95%. At present, the only workable way to do this is

to distill it. In the future, other ways may be discovered which take advantage
of

the different properties of alcohol and water.

Distillation

The temperature of the water-alcohol mixture is raised to above the boiling
point

of ethanol (173 degrees F at sea level) but below the boiling point of water
(212

degrees F). The alcohol changes to vapor and rises in the column, but some of

the water vaporizes with it.

In a simple still, like that used by the moon shiner, the distillate is about
half

water. If this is re-distilled, a higher concentration of alcohol can be
obtained, up

to about 195 proof. Further separation cannot be obtained by distillation
because

of a quirk in the chemistry of the mixture. (Water and alcohol form an azeotrope

at this point.) The final fraction of water must be removed by other methods, if

this is necessary.

Farm alcohol plants can produce 190 to 192 proof alcohol with one pass through

a still equipped with a reflux column, which is a device for making the mixture
of

liquids vaporize, condense, then re-vaporize over and over until the alcohol is

nearly free of water.

In summary, the starch is changed to sugar by enzymes. The yeast changes the

sugar to alcohol during fermentation, giving off carbon dioxide gas and leaving
a

high-protein residue in the mash. The mash contains about 10% alcohol after

fermentation. It is then distilled to make a fuel alcohol that is 160 to 190
proof, or

80 to 95% alcohol.



After the mash has been distilled, the protein and the water are left. The water

can be reused after the protein is separated, or the entire stillage can be
flowed

over straw or hay and fed to livestock.

METHANOL

Methanol, also called methyl alcohol or wood alcohol, works just as well as

ethanol for fuel, but the process for making it is completely different.

Methanol is a highly poisonous liquid. It will kill you if you drink it, and it
can kill

you if it soaks into the skin.

Methanol is made by heating wood wastes, stalks, etc., under relatively low heat

and high pressure and then purifying the product by fractionating columns. It
can

be made from material that is not suited to ethanol production, but if grains,
for

instance were used to make methanol, all the protein would be destroyed.

Methanol can also be made from coal. Both ethanol and methanol have their

place in farm fuel plants.