Extraction, Characterization and Determination of Ethanol Fuel Composite Qualities of Saccharum officinarum , Pennisetum purpureum and Costus afer

Ethanol was extracted from Pennisetum purpureum (Na pier grass), Costus afer (Spiral ginger) and Saccha rum officinarum (Cane sugar) to determine their respect ive and comparative yield and also to determine its fuel composite qualities. Samples were selected from wa ter logged area at Uturu, Abia State. They were cu t into bits, measuring 1 cm to 5 cm in length and dried under su nlight. The dried samples were pounded to pulp and transferred into 15 L buckets, where it was allowed to ferment with the aid of Saccharomyces cerevisia e and water. Fermentation was completed in four days and the fil trates of the various samples subjected to distilla tion to yield ethanol. Redistillation of the ethanol was carried out using a reflux condenser to yield a very pure e thanol. Ethanol yield of the three samples were found to be 500 mL/ Kg of Saccharum officinarum, 150 mL/Kg of Pennisetu m purpureum and 279 mL/Kg of costus afer. Percentage purity of the ethanol was found to be 95.8%, speci fic gravity (S.G) was 0.7620 Kg/L and the boiling point range w as 80 o C-90 o C. The ethanol-PMS blend showed significant increase in the Rated octane number (RON) with a de crease in the Reid vapour pressure (RVP) as the ble nd ratio increased. Conversely, increasing the ethanol-PMS blend revealed systematic changes in the distillati on profile with respect to Initial boiling point (IBP), Final boiling point (FBP) and Total recovery (TR) with re ference to the standard distillation data of pure PMS.