I spotted this on the Today program this morning. A small business named Dogwood Energy is manufacturing stills that turn corn into moonshine fuel. You need a license to manufacture ethanol in the US, but once you have one, you apparently can make a gallon of gas mix for 85 cents. It looks like it takes up a whole lot of room, so I won’t be doing it in my backyard or anything, but if I lived on a farm, it would be tempting.
You’ll need a still, and you will need to ferment beer, or wine, from corn, barley, kitchen scraps, or even molasses. You can build your own still or buy one already assembled. We have all the information you need to manufacture your own fuel. You can build this reflux still.
Link: Building Your Own Ethanol Still
Technorati Tags: gasoline, fuel, ethanol,
{ 8 comments }
We’re still talking about at least 10% (by moles) water in the ethanol solution by this method, aren’t we? You’d have to use benzene to get the ethanol out of the water, and then separate the ethanol from the benzene. Don’t ask me about laws regarding this, I’m just saying that’s what I think.
hmmm…I don’t know the details. Just thought it was interesting.
Any other experts who can shed some light?
Ethanol has come alot futher than you think.
Take a look at my website. http://www.extaltlabs.com
Well, that would be less than 5% water by mass, and you might be able to use quicklime to adsorb the water, but you’d have to keep in mind you’d have to restore the lime back to its dehydrated state to use it again. You could also use a zeolite. You don’t want water in your fuel, though. Very important. Dr. Berglund at MSU worked on purifying ethanol with benzene.
Ethanol Boiling Point: 78.15 °C
Benzene, Ethanol, and Water Azeotrope Boiling Point: 64.9 °C
Benzene Boiling Point: 80.1 °C
What are we? Savages? Why in god’s name has it come to distilling alcohol for fuel? Did we lose a war or something?
Craig, I dont know about where you are are but here in southern CA, 87 octain gas is $3.35 a gal. and that is the cheapest in our area. People are just fed up about getting ripped off.
Running Ethanol is a great idea if you know how to properly set your car up for it (some cars are configured for E85 from the factory). Also, you need to have that 15% gas so that your fuel system will be properly lubricated, without it the Ethanol is a corrosive and can cause serious damage.
The only thing about this that does’nt make sense is the time it takes to make your own Ethanol. If there is more of an automated process I’d be all for it. My time is to valueble to spend a few hours a day making fuel. Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
Sir,
I want to make a deal with you about the production of Ethanol
in India
can you reply
umesh
Sorry, I can’t do that type of deal. This post is a link to another site that does it. You might want to try them.
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