Ethanol is a type of alcohol that is added to gasoline and is also the alcohol in drinks like beer and wine. Scientists write it as C₂H₅OH, which tells us it's made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms arranged in a specific way.

Many countries add ethanol to gasoline to make it burn cleaner and reduce air pollution. This fuel ethanol usually comes from plants such as corn or sugarcane: farmers grow the crops, factories process them, and the natural sugars ferment into ethanol, similar to how grape juice ferments into wine.