1. Ethanol and Natural Gas
Freshman Seminar
10/10
by Lucy Cho

2. Ethanol?
- also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, or drinking alcohol
-volatile, flammable, colorless liquid
-molecular formula : C2H6O

3. Ethanol fuel
-Ethanol fuel is most often used as a biofuel additive for gasoline.
-In 2011, worldwide ethanol fuel production reached 84.6 billion liters.
-U.S. is the top producer accounting for 62.2% of global production, followed by Brazil.
-U.S. and Brazil together produced 87.1% of the world’s ethanol fuel production in 2011.

5. How is ethanol fuel made?
3’10”
To summarize:
Grow common crops like sugar cane, potato, and corn
Ferment
During ethanol fermentation:
C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH+ 2 CO2 + heat
Distill
Dehydrate
Fermentation of ethanol uses similar techniques we use for fermenting wine or beer.
During ethanol fermentation, glucose and other sugars in the corn (or sugarcane or other crops) are converted into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
C6H12O6 → 2 C2H5OH+ 2 CO2 + heat
The fermentation takes place in aqueous solution and the resulting solution after fermentation has an ethanol content of around 15%.
The ethanol is subsequently isolated and purified by a combination of adsorption and distillation techniques. The purification is very energy intensive.

6. Pros & Cons
Price rises of common crops like corn (can lead to food shortage)
Lots of energy required in manufacturing energy
If used as fuel for car, it can cause malfunction at low temperatures
Low energy output
Renewable
No harmful wastes
Lower carbon emissions than gasoline
Cheaper

7. What is it suitable for? Transportation: cars, trains, tank trucks
Chemical plants
Car industries

8. How do we make it viable? Cut down construction costs
Develop technology to get better engine power using ethanol fuel than other fossil fuels
Develop technology that uses micro-organisms(such as bacillus) instead of crops to produce ethanol fuel

9. Implementation plan
2018 : production of better engine power than fossil fuel (when used as car fuel)
2025 : development of technology that uses micro-organism
2030 : replacement of 30% of U.S. oil consumption

10. Something to think about….

11. Natural Gas? Naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture
Primarily methane, but contains alkanes, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and hydrogen sulfide

12. Shale Gas & Tight Gas
Natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations
Natural gas produced from reservoir rocks with such low permeability

16. Horizontal drilling and Hydraulic fracturing
fracturing of rock by a pressurized liquid
commonly used in wells for shale gas and tight gas
hydraulic fracturing first experimented in 1947
video: 22’’-4’44’’
fracturing is a technique in which typically water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and the mixture is injected at high pressure into a wellbore to create small fractures

17. How natural gas plants work
(36”-1’48”)
This two step combined cycle process is highly efficient converting as much as 50% energy contained in natural gas into electricity.
in comparison, coal steam turbines are 33% efficient

18. Pros & Cons cleanest combustion fuel available Finite water pollution
do not release toxins
efficient (abundant and cheap)
transportable
Finite
water pollution
high construction cost
not enough natural gas stations
according to EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration), when you consider the construction and fuel cost, natural gas plants is the cheapest kind of new power generation that you can build right now.

19. What is it suitable for? Power generation (especially electricity)
Domestic
Transportation
Fertilizers
Hydrogen

20. How do we make it viable? Cut down construction costs
Minimize greenhouse emissions
Develop new oil drilling technique
Prevent water pollution

21. NU’s discovery

22. Implementation plan

23. Conclusion
Whether it is natural gas, ethanol fuel, or any alternative energy, we have to make right decisions in choosing our future energy. This is why we have to continue our research on viable alternative energies. The future energy should be clean, but most importantly, cost-effective.