Sustained availability of fossil fuels and the adverse effects
resulting from their usage in the form of green house gas emissions
became a matter of great concern worldwide in the recent past.
Many countries around the world are shifting their focus toward
renewable sources for energy production because of depleting
crude oil reserves [1]. Several countries have already planned for
progressive replacement of conventional fossil fuels with alternative
fuels especially in the transport sector. The Energy Policy Act,
2005 of USA required blending of 7.5 billion gallons of alternative
fuels by 2012 [2] and a goal was set to replace more than 75% of the
imported oil with alternative fuels by 2025 [3]. In this context,
bioethanol is considered to be one of the important alternative
liquid biofuels. The suitability of ethanol as a fuel is because of its
higher octane number, higher heat of vaporization and total
combustibility. Another feature which makes ethanol a candidate