Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, is defined as "an alcohol obtained from the fermentation of sugars and starches or by chemical synthesis" (Ethanol 1). Ethanol is the "intoxicating" ingredient in alcoholic drinks and is also used as a "solvent, in explosives, and as an additive to or replacement for petroleum-based fuels" (Ethanol 1). Ethanol has been used for thousands of years by human beings as an intoxicant in beverages. One history notes that "dried residues" discovered on 9000 year-old pottery in Northern China implies "the use of alcoholic beverages even among Neolithic peoples (History 1). Absolute alcohol, containing less than 1% water, was first obtained by 1796 by Johann Tobias Lowitz, who filtered ethanol through charcoal (History 1).
In the eighteenth century, Antoine Lavoisier characterized ethanol as a compound consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but its chemical formula was not discovered until the early nineteenth century by Nicolas Theodore de Saussure. Ethanol was not prepared synthetically until 1826, when both a Briton, Henry Hennei, and a Frenchman, S. G. Serullas, did so independently (History 1). Michael Faraday's experiments on ethanol resulted in a process quite similar to industrial ethanol synthesis in modern times. The capability to use ethanol as a fuel has existed in the U.S. since the time of the Ford Model T, a vehicle that could "be modified to run on either gasoline or pure alcohol" (History 1). Henry Ford called ethanol the "fuel of the future," though its use declined by the 1930s (History 1). Today, dwindling supplies of petroleum and environmental concerns may make Ford's vision a reality.
The use of corn for ethanol production has had a "profound impact" on U.S. agriculture, with more than two billion bushels used annually for ethanol production (Muller, Velden, and Schoonover 1). Corn-based ethanol may reduce dependence on f...