Bio-ethanol has a very long history with regards to its productions. First occurrence of the production of man-made Bio-ethanol dates back to the Neolithic times. This application of microbiology happens before any formal or intuitive understanding of microbiology. In the past, we produce Bio-ethanol for consumption from fermentation by yeast e.g., wine and beer. It has a long history as a fuel for heat and light, until recently being used as fuel for internal combustion engines and transportation. Now we realize the vast potential of Bio-ethanol to be able to replace fossil fuel. Bio-ethanol refers to Ethanol (ethyl alcohol, C2H5OH) produced from Biomass of crops or cellulose.
Production of Bio-ethanol from renewable resources
Ethanol can be produced from a variety of agriculture feedstock, made from very common crops such as corn, sugarcane, wheat, barley, potatoes, maize. In short, ethanol can be made from any commodity that contains either starch or sugar. Cellulosic ethanol offers production of ethanol from cellulose fibers which is vast amount of agricultural residue left on the fields after the crops had been harvest. However the conversion process of this feedstock is still under development research. Today, two only feedstock are in large-scale productions, Corn main feedstock used in USA (United States of America), and sugarcane in Brazil. Both of this feedstock is the least costly way to produce large quantity of starch from corn and sugar from sugarcane respectively in each country. These two nations accounts for 89% of ethanol production in the world. The idea behind ethanol production is simple enough, Fermentation of sugar. Corn requires more preparation than sugarcane. Yeast ferments some of the prepared feedstock into ethanol. Resulting in a liquid-solid mixture, the liquid component contains both water and ethanol. Then ethanol is separated from the mixture in a multistep process. Almost pure Ethanol liquid is produced from this process.
