Aim: To decipher which of the first six alcohols is the best fuel.

GCSE: Chemistry

It is first necessary to discuss what exactly makes a good fuel. A good fuel can be best described as one that produces a lot of heat energy, whilst not using much of the fuel. Also, a good fuel should burn cleanly. This is of course important. However, it is difficult to measure how cleanly a fuel burns; therefore we will measure how much fuel is used to heat water to a certain temperature.
Now that we have decided what approach to take to the experiment, we will look at some equations that may help the prediction:

1) Methanol CH3OH + 11/2O2 CO2 + 2H2O

2) Ethanol C2H5OH + 3O2 2CO2 + 3H2O

3) Propanol C3H7OH + 41/2O2 3CO2 + 4H2O

4) Butanol C4H9OH + 6O2 4CO2 + 5H2O

5) Pentanol C5H11OH + 71/2O2 5CO2 + 6H2O

6) Hexanol C6H13OH + 9O2 6CO2 + 7H2O

Also, we know that the energy transfer reactions will play a vital part in predicting the results; therefore I will now work them out using the molecular structures and bond energies.
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