Ethanol or Ethyl Alcohol 1949

Ethanol is a volatile, colorless liquid that has a strong characteristic odor. It burns with a smokeless blue flame that is not always visible in normal light. Pure ethanol will irritate the skin and eyes. Nausea, vomiting and intoxication are symptoms of acute exposure. Long term exposure can result in serious liver damage. For more on the hazards of ethanol, go to http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0262.html . Ethanol was commonly used as fuel in early bipropellant rocket vehicles, in conjunction with an oxidizer such as liquid oxygen. The German V-2 rocket of World War II, credited with beginning the space age, used ethanol, mixed with 25% of water to reduce the combustion chamber temperature. The V-2's design team helped develop U.S. rockets following World War II, including the ethanol-fueled Redstone rocket, which launched the first U.S. satellite. Alcohols fell into general disuse as more efficient rocket fuels were developed. Ethanol fuel is ethanol (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It can be used as a transport fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. Ethanol is widely used in Brazil and in the United States, and together both countries were responsible for 89 percent of the world's ethanol fuel production in 2009. Since 1976 the Brazilian government has made it mandatory to blend ethanol with gasoline. Brazil has the largest and most successful bio-fuel programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugarcane, and it is considered to have the world's first sustainable biofuels economy. Bioethanol, unlike petroleum, is a form of renewable energy that can be produced from agricultural feedstocks. It can be made from very common crops such as sugar cane, potato, manioc and maize. However, there has been considerable debate about how useful bioethanol will be in replacing gasoline. Concerns about its production and use relate to the large amount of arable land required for crops, as well as the energy and pollution balance of the whole cycle of ethanol production. For more on biofuels including ethanol, go to http://www.unep.fr/scp/rpanel/pdf/Assessing_Biofuels_Full_Report.pdf . This was clipped from the 1949 film, Alcohol and the Human Body. The entire film has been digitized and is available at the Internet Archive at www.archive.com.

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