What is Bioethanol?

A question that a lot of us think about.

In the past years bioethanol has become more and more known around the Globe due to its spreading purpose in use of biofireplaces, but what it is exactly? And how is it made?

Simply put bioethanol is type of strong alcohol. It is being produced almost the way as other spirits

Todays bioethanol that you use in your biofireplace is made from excess organic waste mostly from agriculture. In the past the organic surplus mass has not been used for anything, but with this process the so-called waste of agricultural industry across the World has suddenly become an important source of clean and sustainable burning fuel.   

The production of Bioethanol starts with the biomass itself. This biomass can consist of a wide variety of organic materials e.g. grass, hay, corn or sugar cane even wood chips. It does not really matter as long as the most important and mostly required substance Cellulose can be found in them.

The first step in the production process is to get rid of large pieces of plants. This is being achived by adding water and steam whilst the mixture is being broken down into a mushy pulp.

After this, a number enzymes are added to the pulp that break down the plant cells and turn the cellulose into dextrose, which is commonly know as sugar. The sugars are the secret of the production process to turn the pulp into bioethanol fuel.

When the enzymes have finally broken down the cellulose into sugars, yeast and bacterias are added, which naturally convert the sugars into ethanol, ie alcohol and natural CO2.

Now you have an alcoholic mass with around 10% of alcohol content. This mass is used to produce the purified bioethanol that you will burn in you biofireplace.

However there is still a long way to go.
In order to separate the alcohol from the mushy mixture, we have to use a process called destillation. Here the mass is being heated so the alcohol evaporates. This alcohol steam is driven into large pipes where it cooles down and turns into liquid thus it can be collected in tanks.

Now we are left with three different products. Despite the fact the goal was to produce alcohol the others are not going to go to waste. The CO2 is used, among many other things, making soda or to produce dry ice which is used in multiple industries. All the plants and organic waste is used as animal feed e.g. for cows or pigs. And the 3rd one is the alcohol that now we know and call as Bioethanol.

This bioethanol is now filtered and cleaned to be as pure as possible in order to make you able to pour it in your biofireplace.

It is very important to use bioethanol with as high level of purity as possible. We recommend it to be at least 95% pure. Some bioethanol products found on the market are diluted (thinned) with water in order to keep the price low. This polution in the burning bioethanol could lead to smoke and soot emition and could also damage your fireplace. 

Our bioethanol is manufactured according to the highest standards to ensure you getting the best experience.

In this way we can ensure that our bioethanol burns with highest efficiency and has the least possible negative impact on the climate and nature, also we can ensure that it is completely sustainble and CO2 neutral.

The pure bioethanol we provide to you as a customer can be safely used both indoors and outdoors, as we ensure a clean and safe product together with out skilled and highly quality-conscious partners.

We honestly hope you enjoy your bio fireplace from LE FEU and our quality bioethanol.

Enjoy!!