The task of reorienting the country’s alcohol industry to the production of bioethanol has no easy solution
On September 6, 2007, the then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said: «If the agrarian complex is built in Ukraine in the right way, Ukraine will become an agrarian Kuwait.» Almost five years have come and gone since then, but the number of those wishing to find a panacea for energy diseases have not declined. And now the Agricultural Policy and Food Minister of the next government says that if one wants, either 10%, or 20%, or even 30% of vehicles can be transferred to the world’s best fuel as early as by 2015, producing four, no – five million tonnes of ethanol every year.
What is needed is only to «support the domestic alcohol industry» by imposing it on consumers. It’s true that five years ago officials were, and still are, absolutely not interested in whether Ukrainian drivers would like to buy this glop, which is unattractive for drinking.
According to Law of Ukraine dated February 23, 2006, No. 3502-IV on amendments to some laws of Ukraine on the stimulation of the production of petrol mixtures for cars, bioethanol is dehydrated ethyl alcohol produced from renewable biological resources.» The DSTU 7166:2010 standards define bioethanol as dehydrated ethyl alcohol produced from biomass or from raw ethyl alcohol for use as biofuel.» What is more, bioethanol is to be used in the production of fuel mixtures for cars, fuel additives on the basis of bioethanol – biological components of motor fuel obtained through a synthesis with the use of bioethanol or mixture of bioethanol with organic compounds and fuels derived from hydrocarbons in which ethanol content complies with requirements and which are classified as biofuel.»
Bioethanol, as a motor fuel, has a number of undoubted advantages. Among them are:
- high octane number (106-108 units in keeping with a research method), as a result it offers a greater degree of compression in the combustion chamber (12-14) and lower specific energy consumption per unit of power (higher engine efficiency);
- less carbon formation and high detergent properties;
- renewability of raw materials, neutrality as a source of greenhouse gases. During production and subsequent combustion of ethanol it produces as much CO2 as the plants used for its production consumed from the atmosphere;
- lower exhaust emissions (emissions of CO, hydrocarbons and particulates). Oxygen contained in ethanol allows for more complete burning of hydrocarbon fuel;
- 10% ethanol in petrol can reduce emissions of particulates by 50%, and those of CO by 30%. If the production of alcohol-based fuel develops at the current level, it is equivalent to the disappearance of one million cars from the road every year. The American Lung Association confirms that the use of alcohol-petrol blends allowed a quarter reduction in smog-forming emissions in 1990;
- less impact on natural water systems.
However, the use of bioethanol has negative sides:
- lower calorific value (25 MJ per kg against 42 MJ for gasoline);
- less energy density (one liter of ethanol contains 37% less energy than one liter of petrol), which leads to a higher rate of alcohol-based fuel consumption;
- significant dependence on the pressure of saturated vapor from temperature, which complicates the engine start at low temperatures and its operation at temperatures above 25°C, etc.
You can read full article in journal «Terminal: Oil Review» №14 (600) 9 Apr 2012
