Timeline of alcohol fuel

Ethanol, an alcohol fuel, is an important fuel for the operation of internal combustion engines that are used in cars, trucks, and other kinds of machinery. Ethanol was first isolated from wine in approximately 1100 and was found to burn shortly thereafter. These early solutions distilled from wine-salt mixtures were referred to as aqua ardens (burning water) or aqua flamens (flaming water) and had such low alcohol content that they burned without producing noticeable heat. By the 13th century, the development of the cooling coil allowed the isolation of nearly pure ethanol by distillation. Ethanol has been used for lamp oil and cooking, along with plant and animal oils. Small alcohol stoves (also called "spirit lamps") were commonly used by travelers in the 17th century to warm food and themselves. Before the American Civil War many farmers in the United States had an alcohol still to turn crop waste into free lamp oil and stove fuel for the farmers' family use. Conflict over taxation was not unusual; one example was the Whiskey Rebellion in 1791. In 1826, Samuel Morey uses alcohol in the first American internal combustion engine prototype. In the 1830s, alcohol blends had replaced increasingly expensive whale oil in most parts of the country. It "easily took the lead as the illuminant" because it was "a decided improvement on other oils then in use." By 1860, thousands of distilleries churned out at least of alcohol per year for lighting. Camphene / alcohol blends (at

.50 per gallon) were cheaper than whale oil (

1.30 to

2.50 per gallon) and lard oil (90 cents per gallon). It was about the same price as coal oil, which was the product first marketed as "kerosene." In 1860, German inventor Nicolaus Otto uses ethyl alcohol as a fuel in an early internal combustion engine. In 1862 and 1864, a tax on alcohol was passed in the U.S. to pay for the Civil War, increasing the price of ethanol to over

2.00 per gallon. A new product from petroleum, called kerosene, is taxed at 10 cents a gallon.

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Alcohol fuel

Various alcohols are used as fuel for internal combustion engines. The first four aliphatic alcohols (methanol, ethanol, propanol, and butanol) are of interest as fuels because they can be synthesized chemically or biologically, and they have characteristics which allow them to be used in internal combustion engines. The general chemical formula for alcohol fuel is CnH2n+1OH. Most methanol is produced from natural gas, although it can be produced from biomass using very similar chemical processes.

Butanol fuel

Butanol may be used as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. It is more similar to gasoline than it is to ethanol. A C4-hydrocarbon, butanol is a drop-in fuel and thus works in vehicles designed for use with gasoline without modification. Both n-butanol and isobutanol have been studied as possible fuels. Both can be produced from biomass (as "biobutanol" ) as well as from fossil fuels (as "petrobutanol"). The chemical properties depend on the isomer (n-butanol or isobutanol), not on the production method.

Ethanol fuel

Ethanol fuel is fuel containing ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol as found in alcoholic beverages. It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. Several common ethanol fuel mixtures are in use around the world. The use of pure hydrous or anhydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines (ICEs) is only possible if the engines are designed or modified for that purpose.

Process integration as a tool for the improvement of cruise ships energy efficiency

François Maréchal, Francesco Baldi

The growing trend of the cruise ship industry, together with increasing concerns over its impact on the environment, makes these ships a much relevant target for efforts toward increasing ship energy efficiency, thus ultimately reducing fuel consumption an ...

2018

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The present study evaluates a sugarcane biorefinery producing ethanol through juice fermentation and methanol via gasification of sugarcane lignocellulosic residues and liquid fuel synthesis. Two technologies of gasification named entrained flow and circul ...

2017

Towards the sustainable cultivation of microalgae for the production of biofuels and added-value chemicals

Christof Holliger, Jean-Paul Schwitzguebel, Gabrielle Hack, Charlotte Pfistner

Microalgae represent an attractive source of biomass for biofuels and chemicals production since they can have higher energy yields per area than conventional biomass crops and can be grown on marginal land using waste, saline, or brackish water. Their use ...

2012