Ethanol is a compound which is manufactured by the fermentation of various biological materials such as wheat, corn, wood, barley and sugarcane. Corn and starch based crops are the most common materials used in ethanol production. This compound is miscible with water and most of the organic solvent.

Ethanol is a very important element of various industries and used as a solvent for many substances. It is because of wide range of applications such as perfumes, paints, lacquer, and explosive, that, ethanol market is expected to grow at a very impressive rate in coming years. 

It also finds its applications in beverages such as beer and wine, and is gaining prominence as an alternative to gasoline fuel. Automotive industry has been a prominent end user of ethanol over several years. Ethanol blends easily with gasoline that is up to five to thirty percent (5 to 30%). Ethanol blended with gasoline reduces air pollution and aids to improve the performance of vehicle to great extent.

Ethanol is a vital component for automobiles industry owing to its usage as fuel and fuel additive in automobiles.  With growing population, rising demand for automobiles, increasing disposable income, environment friendly nature, lower cost compared to the traditional fuel and several benefits offered by ethanol, the demand for global ethanol market is expected to show significant growth during the forecast period and especially in automobile industry.

Alcoholic beverages industry is another prominent end use industry of ethanol market.  Growing demand for premium quality alcohol, Changing lifestyle, increasing disposable income, changing taste and preferences of people are the major driving forces of Global ethanol market in alcoholic beverages industry.

Nevertheless, introduction of electric cars, increasing substitute for alcohol beverages, rise in price of raw material are few restraints that are affecting the demand for global ethanol market.

Nigeria only produced nine million (9,000,000) litres of ethanol per year which is three to four percent (3-4%) the country’s requirement, the remaining ninety-six to ninety-seven percent (96 to 97%) deficit is still been imported from Brazil and India among other countries. Nigeria spends about N 160 billion annually to import four hundred million (400,000,000) litres of ethanol for industrial use.

Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world, producing about forty-nine (49,000,000) million tons per of the product annually.Cassava is one of the richest fermentable substances for the production of crude alcohol/ethanol. 

Cassava produces a better quality alcohol, and the distilling technique employed ensures a high quality product, free from all type of odors and not harmful to the environment.

There are two types of ethanol: (1) Denatured ethanol and (2) Hydrous ethanol. Denatured Ethanol: It is the one used in blending Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to E10, E20 etc. It is usually mixed with 2-5 low cost hydrocarbon that makes it unfit for human consumption.

Hydrous Ethanol: It is the natural ethanol used as industrial raw material in the production of alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, perfumes, drinks, medicaments and other industrial uses. The production is viable because it is resource-based: the raw material, the technology and the equipment are all locally available.