By Edwin T. Scallon, Copyright © 1990, 1995, 2008, 2020 All Rights Reserved
ACCIDENT RECONSTRUCTION AND BAC CALCULATION PROGRAMS
ETHYL ALCOHOL
Ethyl alcohol is a colorless liquid at room temperature. It boils at 78 C at atmospheric pressure and freezes at -114 degrees C. Ethyl alcohol mixes in all proportions with water - the two substances are mutually soluble. It is flammable and will bun in air when there is between 3 and 19% ethanol in the vapor.
All beverage alcohol and much of the alcohol used in industry is formed through fermentation of a variety of products including grain such as corn, potato mashes, fruit juices, beet and cane sugar molasses. Fermentation is an enzymatically anaerobic controlled transformation of an organic compound. With respect to alcohol, we are referring to the conversion of sugars to ethanol by microscopic yeasts in the absence of oxygen.
The initial fermentation mixture contains approximately 3 to 5% ethanol such as in beer and up to 12 to 15% ethanol as in wine and sherry. Higher concentrations of ethanol cannot be achieved by fermentation, because the yeast becomes inactivated. In this case distillation is required to generate higher alcohol concentrations.