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Chapter SPIR4120

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date10 April 2016
Record NumberSPIR4120
CourtHM Revenue & Customs
IssuerHM Revenue & Customs

In the UK, industrial ethanol is normally produced by the hydration of ethylene gas. To be commercially viable, the ‘distiller’ needs uninterrupted access to huge supplies of ethylene gas. A typical industrial ethanol ‘distiller’ produces around 16,000,000 litres of alcohol per month.

The process

Ethylene gas and water are piped into a furnace where they are heated to 300 degrees Celsius. The heated mixture then passes to the reaction chamber, where a catalyst is used to speed up the reaction. Here, under pressure, some of the ethylene gas and water combines to form ethanol vapour which is condensed into a weak solution of ethanol and water. This solution is fed into the purification system. Around 95% of the original ethylene gas remains unreacted and is returned to the start of the process and used again.The basic chemical reaction is:

ethylene + water ð ethanol

CH2=CH2 + water ð CH3-CH2-OH

The purification system consists of a number of distillation...

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