Ethanol Production?

Question

i need a thesis statement and i dont know how to even try to come up with one and suggestions?

Answer 1

"America's ability to produce ethanol will never match its demand if we switch to 100% ethanol vehicles." Easily backed up by facts, because...well, because it's true.

Answer 2

There are at least two methods used to produce ethanol:
1....Manufacture from ethene using steam (the "synthetic" route)
2....Production from sugars and starches by fermentation, using yeasts

1...Ethanol is manufactured by the hydration of ethene using steam in the presence of a phosphoric acid catalyst to produce ethyl alcohol C2-H5-OH.
(Further purification by distillation is needed due to the formation of undesirable compounds such as Methanol and heavy alcohols).
The reactions involved in the production of synthetic ethanol produce an ethanol and water mixture. Fractional distillation always results in a mixture of 96% ethanol and 4% water (instead of 100% pure or absolute ethanol). This is known as an azeotropic or constant boiling mixture.

Conventionally, this last 4% water is removed from the azeotropic mixture either by refluxing with calcium oxide, a dehydrating agent ..this increases production costs.

New purification techniques involve the use of zeolites, which have structures with holes that can absorb and hence remove water from the final mixture. Several zeolites have a particularly strong attraction, and they act as dehydrating agents at normal temperatures and pressures and can then be dried by heating and re-used. This produces considerable savings in energy.

The fermentation method produces a low yield ethanol/water procuct with some undesirable side products.
The mixture is then distilled at around 80°C (176°F) to get a cleaner, higher concentration of ethanol.
This process is repeated on the product up to three times and an acceptable grade of ethanol is produced.

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Answer 3

"ethanol is an effective short term substitute for gasoline, however, it is impractical as a main form of energy"... for the us to run on ethanol alone, it would need 35 billion gallons a year... im sure with some research u could find how much acreage this is and it will be an astounding amount

Answer 4

"Why Ethanol Production in the US is Un-economic." The short answer: it requires 80,000 BTU of energy from various sources to make a gallon of ethanol with an energy content of 85,000 BTU.