Solar Heating and production of Ethanol
By admin. Filed in Uncategorized |Tags: solar heating, solar lighting
Ethanol from maize, sugar cane, etc is an alternative to kerosene, for lighting and cooking in developing countries. Indian scientists have used Solar Heating to distill alcohol instead of burning biomass-derived fuel. It is a flat plate solar collector, with an area of 38 sq mts combined with a distillation plant with a capacity of producing 1.8 litres per hour of 95% ethanol when the insolation is 7 kWh/m2.day. Ethanol is a biomass-derived fuel hence renewable as sweet sorghum, sugarcane, etc are used. Ethanol can be produced from their stalks. Distillation can takes up to 80-85% of total energy consumed in ethanol production. The fuels usually are wood, bagasse & charcoal. We need to protect trees hence consuming wood and charcoal would be incorrect. Bagasse is a raw material for paper and hence, a waste to use it as fuel. Distillation by Solar Lighting / Solar Heating of ethanol does provide a solution for energy conservation in this process.