Production of Ethanol from Sugar Cane? (1 Viewer)

[Markodonohue]

I'm having significant trouble finding any information on the production of Ethanol from sugar cane. There is plenty of information on the production from corn, but this is not what i need.

Question: List and explain all the significant physical and chemical processes involved in the production of ethanol from sugar cane.

Any websites or information would be very much appreciated asap.

Cheers, Mark.

Edit: I'm a little bit further in my research (Thanks boris) but now if anyone knows, can find out, or can figure out the formula for the process of Azeotropic Distillation whereby benzene (C6H6) is added to break down the azeotrope, i would be very appreciative.

 

[boris]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel#Production_process

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1763365.htm

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/answers2/frontend.php/question?qid=20071102001513AAGvSwP

I dunno, surely there is something in there about it.

 

[boris]

http://aiche.confex.com/aiche/2006/techprogram/P73730.HTM

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060706122337AAv5Hhu

 

[namburger]

Basically:
1. Sugar Cane is Collected
2. Sugar cane is crushed and squeezed out to remove maximum amount of juice
3. Juice is than filtered to remove impurities and boiled in huge pans
4. As boiling continues, liquid --> crystal + syrup
5. The crystals and syrup are put into a centrifuge, to separate the crystal and syrup(glucose)
6. the glucose is fermented by enzymes in yeast, products are carbon dioxide and Ethanol/water mixture
7. The ethanol + water mixture is distilled to achieve a more concentrated product

 

[brenton1987]

I'm a little bit further in my research (Thanks boris) but now if anyone knows, can find out, or can figure out the formula for the process of Azeotropic Distillation whereby benzene (C6H6) is added to break down the azeotrope, i would be very appreciative.

Adding benzene alters the molecular interactions between the water molecule and the ethanol molecule. The azeotrope forms because water will bind to ethanol stronger than it will bind to itself so they distill together. The benzene reduces the attraction of the water to the ethanol which allows the compounds to be separated. Also, an additional distillation is now required to remove the benzene.