A colourless water-soluble alcohol, C2H5OH; r.d. 0.789 (0°C); m.p. –117.3°C; b.p. 78.3°C. It is the active principle in intoxicating drinks, in which it is produced by fermentation of sugar using yeast
The ethanol produced kills the yeast and fermentation alone cannot produce ethanol solutions containing more than 15% ethanol by volume. Distillation can produce a constant-boiling mixture containing 95.6% ethanol and 4.4% water. Pure ethanol (absolute alcohol) is made by removing this water by means of drying agents.
The main industrial use of ethanol is as a solvent although at one time it was a major starting point for making other chemicals. For this it was produced by fermentation of molasses. Now ethene has replaced ethanol as a raw material and industrial ethanol is made by hydrolysis of ethene.