Elizabeth Ping | November 1, 2011| 1

Ethanol from Sucrose

Introduction:

The purpose of this experiment was to use fermentation to produce ethanol and fractional
fermentation to produce ethanol from the fermented solution. The percent ethanol in the
fermented solution was then calculated.

Procedure:
See attachment.

Set up

Observations:

Calculations:
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Mass of 3 mL conical vial 27.431

Mass of 3 mL conical vial with distillate 27.977 g
Mass of distillate (mass of vial-mass of vial 22.977 g-27.431 g=0.5467 g
with distillate)
Volume of distillate using automatic pipet 0.6 mL
Density of distillate (mass of distillate/volume 0.5467 g
=0.911 g /mL
of distillate) 0.6 mL

Percent composition by weight of ethanol ~60%

using table on page 149

1) 1 sucrose4 ethanol
C12 H 22 O11 + H 2 O 4 C 2 H 6 0+ 4 C O2

C12 H 22 O11 C2 H 6 O 1

12 X12=144 2X2=24
22X1=22 6X1=6
11X16=176 1X16=16
144+22+176=342 g/mol sucrose 24+6+16=46 g/mol ethanol

2.0 g sucrose ( 1342moleg sucrose

sucrose 4 moles ethanol 46 g ethanol
)( 1mole sucrose )( 1 mole ethanol )=1.08 g ethanol
2) Percent yield
Formula: (amount prepared/amount possible) X 100% = percent yield
( 0.5467 g ethanol/1.08 g ethanol ) 100 =50.6 percent yield ethanol

Conclusions:

The mass of the distillate obtained after fermentation and the fractional distillation process was
0.546 g. The distillate was collected when the temperature reached approximately 50C. The
amount of ethanol that should have been produced was 1.08 g. This created a percent yield of
50.6 percent so only 50.6 percent of ethanol was recovered. The density of the distillate obtained
was 0.911 g/mL; therefore, the percent ethanol by weight was approximately 60% according to
the table on page 149. The distillate contained mostly ethanol, but it also contained water
because ethanol and water form an azeotropic mixture consisting of 95% ethanol and 5% water
by weight. This experiment was a moderate success since ethanol was produced from the
fermentation of sugar.

Some of the errors that might have occurred included using unclean glassware that may have
produced side reactions, the incubator could have gotten too warm or too cold during the
fermenting process, oxygen may have gotten in during the fermentation process resulting in
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unwanted byproducts, and water may have gotten into some of the distillate that was collected
resulting in a lower percent of ethanol collected or more dilute solution.

Questions:

C12 H 22 O11 + H 2 O 4 C 2 H 6 0+ 4 C O2
1)
2) Commercial production of absolute alcohol occurs through the hydration of ethylene and
the fermentation of sugars from yeast.
3) The balloon was necessary in the fermentation process of the alcohol because it
prevented oxygen from entering the system. Oxygen would have caused the ethanol to
oxidize and turn into acetic acid, carbon dioxide, and water.
4) Acetaldehyde is an impurity that can occur during the fermentation process if oxygen
reacts with the fermenting solution.

References:

Pavia, Donald, Gary Lampman, George Kriz, and Randall Engel. Introduction to Organic
Laboratory Techniques: A Microscale Approach. Belmont: Thomson Brooks, 2007.