In the recent years, we have been facing an exponential increase in energy demand. To date, fossil fuels are the fuel of choice, but rise in costs, depletion of reservoirs and growing awareness to the environmental effects, have elevated the appeal of renewable energy sources. Among the most attractive substitutes, especially in the context of fuel for transportation, is bioethanol – the ethanol produced by microbial fermentation of feedstock. However, research in this growing field is hampered, especially in developing countries, by the cost of current ethanol quantification methods. Here we presented a simple, rapid, low-cost method for ethanol quantification based on organic extraction followed by gas-chromatography flame-ionization-detector (GC-FID) chromatography. This method offers wide range detection (1 to 30% v/v) and was demonstrated as suitable for fermentation process.

Key words: Bioethanol, yeast, fermentation, ethanol quantification, gas chromatography.