Alcohol can be manufactured either by fermentation technology from agro based raw materials or synthetically from petroleum feed stocks. The subject of fermentation alcohol has always been of considerable interest to several tropical countries but until the oil crisis of 1973 only India appreciated the importance of fermentation alcohol as a strategic material in its economy. In fact in India ethyl alcohol is manufactured only by fermentation process, in as much as it has very scanty resources of petroleum of its own. However, it was Brazil in 1975, which provided, by embarking upon an ambitious programme for fermentation ethanol manufacture, the necessary blue print of harnessing bio mass as a renewable source of energy. |
Ethanol is made from a variety of agricultural products such as molasses, grain, sweet sorghum, corn, potatoes, etc., which are classified into three categories: sugar, starch and cellulose. Of these sugars are easily and directly converted to alcohol using yeast. Other materials need pretreatment to convert them to simple fermentable sugars which can then be converted to alcohol.
Of all the sugar bearing materials, molasses a waste product from manufacturing sugar from cane, is the simplest and cheapest raw material and the main source for alcohol manufacture in India. |
