[The Use of the abundance ratio of 13C and 12C isotopes for characteristic of the origin of ethyl alcohol].

During alcohol fermentation, the carbon isotope composition of ethyl alcohol produced depended on the substrate used and was characterized by the value of delta 13C equal to -24.7 +/- 0.8/1000 (wheat grain), -22 +/- 0.1/1000 (rye grain), -22 +/- 0.5/1000 (products of wood hydrolysis), -15.3 +/- 0.3/1000 (maize grain) and -10 +/- 0.1/1000 (sugar cane). The isotope composition of carbon of ethyl alcohol obtained during catalytic hydroxylation of ethylene has a delta 13C of -30.6 +/- 0.3/1000. The possibility of quantitative determination of specific components in mixtures of ethanol samples with various isotope compositions (chemical synthesis and alcohol fermentation of raw material from C3- or C4-plants) was shown.