Tbh Kap your answer about ethanol not being viable for use as a fuel from ethylene is debatable. It's currently being used as a petrol extender up to 10% in Australia that's why the petrol you use is called E10 unleaded and in countries such as Brazil some cars use 100% ethanol. It's good to say it's not viable from use from ethylene rather fermenting glucose which is good and that's what you said but I reckon it wouldn't be good to have such a strong opinion, it can be made from ethylene and remember that fermenting glucose from biomass also uses considerable energy derived from petroleum. But otherwise your answer is really good 6/7 just for the above and for not talking about it as a solvent.
I mentioned it was an industrial solvent. And this questions was 'faulty' per say, as ethanol is the only fuel that can be made from ethylene, but they dont use ethylene to make ethanol in fuels. If they are gonna make ethanol for fuel they do it from sugar cane. Check what roland smith has to say about this question..i agree with him fully. And why the fuck would you use ethylene to make ethanol to use as a fuel, when you can use octane etc. The only reason we are trying to use ethanol in the first place is because it can be obtained from renewable sources, and is also greenhouse neutral (when considering the CO2 from photosynthesis + fermentation = CO2 from combustion.) But if we produce it from ethylene, which is obtained from a non renewable source, then what is actually the point. We are not solving any environmental issues (maybe the fact that incomplete combustion is less likely to occur but still), and ethanol's molar heat of combustion is less than octane, and other fuels, yeh.
