Question

Ethyl alcohol is industrially prepared from ethylene by
$A)$ Permanganate oxidation
$B)$ Catalytic reduction
$C)$ Absorbing in ${H_2}S{O_4}$ followed by hydrolysis
$D)$ Fermentation

Answer 1

The hydrocarbon ethylene (IUPAC name: ethene) has the formula ${C_2}{H_4}$ or ${H_2}C = C{H_2}$ . When pure, it's a colourless, flammable gas with a faint "sweet and musky" odour. It is the most basic alkene (a hydrocarbon with carbon-carbon double bonds).

Complete step by step answer:
Ethylene is a hormone present in plants that is used to force the ripening of fruits in agriculture. Ethanol is also known as ethyl alcohol, is the ethylene hydrate.
Ethylene absorbs ${H_2}S{O_4}$ to form ethyl sulphate $(C{H_3} - C{H_1} - HS{O_4})$
$C{H_2} = C{H_2}\xrightarrow{{{H_2}S{O_4}}}C{H_3} - C{H_1} - HS{O_4}$
The organic chemical compound ethyl sulphate (IUPAC name: ethyl hydrogen sulfate), also known as sulfonic acid, is a chemical that is used as a catalyst in the production of ethanol from ethylene. It's the sulfuric acid ethyl ester.
A chemical reaction where one or more chemical bonds are broken by a molecule of water is known as hydrolysis.
During hydrolysis, both ethyl sulphate and the water molecule will split into two. One fragment of the target molecule wins a hydrogen ion in such reactions. So, after hydrolysis, we get ethyl alcohol and ${H_2}S{O_4}$
$C{H_3} - C{H_1} - HS{O_4}\xrightarrow{{Hydrolysis}}C{H_3} - C{H_2} - OH + {H_2}S{O_4}$
We can clearly notice that due to hydrolysis, ethyl sulphate converts into ethyl alcohol.

Therefore, option $C)$ Absorbing in ${H_2}S{O_4}$ followed by hydrolysis is the correct answer.

Note: Ethylene is extensively in use in the chemical industry, and it produces more than any other organic compound (more than $150$ million tonnes in $2016$ ). Polyethylene, a commonly used plastic made up of polymer chains of ethylene units of different lengths, accounts for a significant portion of this output.