Overhaulin'

How can i make Ethanol from grain and do i need to modify my car to run on it?

With Gas Prices what they are in Southern California i was thinking about running my car on Pure or next to pure Ethanol, I'm just not exactly sure how to go about doing it. Or if i need to do anything to my car ( i have a 94 Cougar XR7 ) and is there any legal thing I need to worry about because i will be more or less running a distillery. This would be for my personal use, friends' cars and not for drinking so i could use a lower grade of grain.

Public Comments

1. Regarding the making of ethanol, I think there are licenses involved. Regarding modifications to vehicle, the fuel system would need to be changed to use alcohol. Some newer materials used are damaged by alcohol and would need to be replaced by different materials, (gaskets, fuel line, carb seals, etc.;) also, since the alcohol molecule is larger, jetting would be different and due to the difference in the way it burns the timing would be different.
2. Ethanol plants are not nearly as profitable as they were before corn prices went up. It is mostly questionable whether you would save any money unless your operation is both large scale and very efficient. If you were producing ethanol, you would be selling it to be mixed with gasoline because a blend is more efficient use of ethanol. I strongly suggest that running a small scale ethanol plant is going to cost you money compared to simply buying the ethanol.
3. Get a budget for new engines.
4. I made a small-scale distillery for a university project. It required permits and cost over $800 (thankfully, not my own money). Once it was built I could produce 4L of 96% ethanol for roughly $20. In other words, $20/gal + the construction cost. What's gas in the US right now? $3/gal. Definitely NOT worth it. You'd have to do it on a very large scale and have lots of government subsidies to make it economical.
5. It's easiest to make ethanol from sugar but it takes 10 to 14 lbs of sugar to make one gallon of ethanol. At 20 cents per pound, that's $2 to $2.80 per gallon just for the sugar never mind the energy to keep the mash at the appropriate temperature or the costs involved to distill the ethanol out of the mash. The $20 per gallon value from another poster is probably a good estimate of what it will cost in the end, if you actually took into consideration all of your operating costs which is something enthusiasts always fail to do. To make it from grain, you must keep the mash warm for a much longer period of time or use enzymes. Of course you may be able to get "free" heat perhaps by passive solar and a hot water tank, ideally you would want about 80 F to 110 F so in some parts of the country it wouldn't take much energy at all. The hardest thing will be separating the ethanol from the mixture of water, yeast, sugars and carbohydrates plus whatever other nonsense is in there. There won't be any more than 5% to 8% of ethanol in the brew, at over 14% the yeast would die. You could distill it with more energy but the temperature difference between when the ethanol evaporates and when water evaporates is pretty slim so you'll still get some water and it probably won't be pure enough to use as a fuel. You could try to filter it with a high tech ceramic filter which only let's the smaller water molecules through but that would probably be difficult to get. If you really want to do home ethanol and don't have the time, patience and land to do a stinky still (your neighbours will probably complain about a still unless you're on a large acreage), then you could get a microfueler. They claim to have a source of low quality non-food grade sugar available at 2 cents a pound and they say their machine can produce 70 gallons of E100 per week. It only costs $10,000 before tax credits. I'd be a bit wary of the septic line connection if I was using a septic tank, releasing the waste brewer's yeast into a septic tank is bound to mess up the bacteria in the tank somewhat. In general, you're better off purchasing E85 at the pumps where it has been subsidized by the government. As to running on ethanol. There are two issues. Ethanol dissolves natural rubbers but fortunately, after the attempt to introduce E10 to E15 as gasohol in the 70's, new cars were required to have fuel paths that would tolerate ethanol i.e.: no more rubber hoses and gaskets and all cars were required to tolerate up to 15% ethanol, they also passed legislation to specifically allow gasoline with up to 10% ethanol content to be sold as premium unleaded gasoline in order to avoid the stigma of gasohol which the public had by then believed was destructive to engines, by selling it at a higher price then regular unleaded, it was mostly only people who had cars with the premium only requirement in the owner's manual that would purchase the blend. Ethanol has a lower energy density so the fuel injection flow rate has to be increased. In the carburetor days of the 70's, this involved replacing the jets or boring out the existing jets to increase the fuel to air ratio. However, practically all cars since the 80's are fuel injection cars where the fuel flow rate is computer controlled and is actually varied according to various sensors often allowing variations in ethanol content from 0% through 33%, in most cases the injectors are capable of much higher flow rates and the limit at 33% is arbitrary as simply being double the level that the government required them to tolerate. In Brazil, they've had ethanol blends for decades and they market after market conversion kits which basically multiply the step increase and decreases ordered by the computer by 3, allowing the injectors to adjust their flow rate for blends between 0% and 100% although less precisely since the computer works on a feedback system, the added gain in the control system doesn't bother the computer at all. You can get one of these kits for about $400 and have a licensed mechanic install it for you. Only one of these kits have been EPA certified but that's because ever since the CNG conversion kit debacles of the 80's, the EPA has made the certification process very difficult to navigate. As uncertified kits, the only legal recourse to any damages done would be civil action against the manufacturer of the kit, chances are you're on your own if anything goes wrong. There are some cars whose fuel injectors can't handle the flow rates required so the kits for those cars include replacing the injectors, otherwise it's like hooking up a DTV converter box plus mounting it on the firewall (sticky tape won't work for long). Keep in mind that ethanol is a solvent whereas gasoline is a blend that tends to separate over time hence the gasoline you've been using has probably deposited all sorts of junk into your gas tank, mostly varnishes. If you increase the ethanol that you put in the tank, some of this debris will be loosened up and carried through the fuel lines. The fuel filter will stop it but may become clogged. Flex Fuel cars account for this by having larger fuel filters. You may want to replace your fuel filter after your first tank of E85, and perhaps replace it with a larger aftermarket fuel filter.