Ethanol is handy stuff

Believe it or not, one hundred percent pure ethyl alcohol is handy stuff – it’s used for many different things besides fueling cars and trucks and heating houses. Ethanol is one of mankind’s most important industrial organic chemicals. In Canada, the largest and most efficient producer is GreenField Ethanol.

One hundred percent pure ethyl alcohol is a colorless, limpid, volatile liquid that's flammable and toxic and has a pungent taste. It boils at 78.4°C (173°F) and melts at 112.3°C (170.1°F), and has a specific gravity of 0.7851 at 20°C (68°F). It’s soluble in water and most organic liquids.

Ethanol is used as a cleaner and disinfectant – if you wipe your neck with ethanol before wearing your favorite dress shirts, you’ll never get ‘ring around the collar’.

Ethanol is used in the manufacture of cologne, perfume and toilet water. It preserves biological fragrances and its volatile molecules are employed to carry the smell through the air and into human noses. The sale of alcohol based perfume is highly regulated in the United States. Here are the ">BATF guidelines - the US government doesn’t want anyone drinking perfume.

While we’re discussing such sweet smelling things, maybe I should mention that ethyl alcohol is also used in the production of essential oils for aromatherapy. Ethanol extraction is a type of solvent extraction used to take fragrant compounds directly from dry raw materials, as well as the impure oils. Vanilla extract is often produced using a polar solvent such as ethanol. The polarity of ethanol allows extraction of the volatile aromatics while leaving behind the non-polar plant waxes. The ethanol is then evaporated to leave behind ‘absolute vanilla’ (in some case as much as 5% ethanol remains).

One of the most interesting uses for ethanol is marine taxidermy – here the stuff is used as an inexpensive embalming fluid.

Fish_in_a_jar Marine biologists who adventure deep inside the ichthyarchy (the domain of fishes) may find they have captured rare photosensitive creatures that don’t keep well in fresh water, or brine, and don’t display well in glycerin. The solution is pure ethanol. This clear and colorless alcohol prevents cellular decay (by removing oxygen) and keeps marine specimens looking just as they did when they were first caught.

GreenField Ethanol | BATF guidelines

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated