Ethanol Fuel Production from Cassava as a Substitute for Gasoline

The potential in alcohols as fuel had for long being recognized by the early inventors of machines and engines, even before gasoline and the hydrocarbons became popular. In fact, Henry Ford, one of the pioneers in automobile manufacture, designed his equipment to run on ethanol. But since then, time has seen gasoline and other conventional fuels take the front seat in engine application. This article is an insight into the experiment carried out to produce fuel from cassava starch and the characterization to determine some of the fuel properties in comparison to gasoline. The choice of cassava for the production was based on its availability and ability to grow in almost all geographical regions in Nigeria. Experimental production gave a sample concentration of 87% corresponding to a yield of 0.534 cm³ of ethanol per gram of starch hydrolyzed while the sample characteristics for the latent heat of vaporization, heat of combustion, flash point, and density are 950 kJ/kg, 22133.7 kJ/kg, 17–20°C, and 0.825, respectively. The results obtained compared favorably with those of gasoline that the sample concentration.