Building a still is not a problem and we can make some really high alcohol based booze or maybe we should make some to run our Toyota's. Anyone think they can make a 2.7 to run off West Virginia Shine?

 

Alls I know is that they use a percentage in the gasoline here in california of ethonol/grain alcohol.

I would have no clue how to incorporate a 50/50 mixture or even 100% of ethonol. I bet its possible, but, it seems like it would take a lot of modifcation! That would be SWEET though!

My radio controlled car runs off of an alcohol based fuel. I think the heat properties are different, running a tiny little two stroked engine generates a TON of heat. It even has a cooling head twice the size of the piston.

 

<-- (BS in Chemical Engineering, with emphasis on the B.S. part! )



due to the azeotropic characteristics of an ethanol/water mixture, you'll only theorhetically achieve a 90% EtOH concentration with "simple multiple-stage distillation". in reality, you'll get close (probably about 85%) with a triple distillation process.

you are safe to mix that with pump gasoline up to about 20-25%, but just be aware that EtOH does attack some forms of rubber/butyl and can cause some other issues. also, it is less "energy-dense" than gasoline and therefore your horsepower will drop.

 

Unless you take advantage of the cooler flame temp by increasing compression ratio.

 

Yeah, what they said, but more importantly- Why dump perfectly good Shine into your gas tank when it could be put to better uses?



-Scubaduck

 

EtOH can easily be distilled to 95% (got some sitting beside me right now), but you can't get better than that.

to answer the OP's question. it shouldn't be too hard to run on moonshine. it'd be the same conversion as to run on E85. the only reasion it's E85 is that they put 15% gasoline in it to be poisionous so you can't go the the pump and get drunk on $2.50/gal booze. the main key is that you'll need to replace any rubber in the fuel lines that will dissolve in ethanol. just do a little research into what's needed on the E85 cars and you'll be fine. you will get less power with ethanol unless you can increase the compression ratio - don't know how easily that's accomplished.

 

it's VERY good if you have a blower/turbo, but if you don't then you loose HP.

 

if you drink enough of it, you won't care how much hp you got, and how much gas costs

 

you can easily get 95% with simple distillation? how many stages? i thought it was something like 8 or 10 stages to get that high in any large amounts... that's why i said 85% would be feasable since you can do that with about 3-4 depending on your efficiency at where you cut off the vapor flow to the condensor.

if you start with a good sweet mash and ferment to about 15% concentration, then filter off the solids and distill in a triple-effect still, you can get about 20-22oz of 85% EtOH from a Gallon of shine.

 

You guys who are talking 85-90% Alcohol are going right over my head. This stuff just doesn't burn, it explodes when you touch a match to it. Gas burns and or ignites fast but not like this stuff,Lol
Guess I will just drink it then I really wont care about the gas prices because I wont be able to drive anywhere. Mike

 

A buddy of mine makes moonshine from surgarcane and it's 196 proof or 98%, as for the process, I have no clue.........

Here in CA they add 10% ethanol to the gas......

 

...what he said

 

which is why you can squish it an engine and make it go.

everclear is 195 proof (illegal in ca)

 

freakin screw the truck... send me some

 

it's not 98% by distillation only. that's impossible due to the chemisty of the water/EtOH mixture. you have to use a "drying agent" (like some forms of salt) to pull the some of the water out once you hit the 96% EtOH mark. once you do that, you can get over/past the azeotropic concentration and then you can go up higher and higher. you will never reach a theorhetical EXACT 100% EtOH solution with distillation though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol

read about the Fermentation and Purification steps for more info.

 

here
http://www.beutilityfree.com/still_h...home_page.html

is a still you can buy for just this purpose. You are supposed to get a permit from the feds, and need to do something to make it poisonous, like run it through a galvanized pipe. It's tough to save any money by doing this, unless you have a cheap source of sugar. One guy has a source at a grocery store that gives him fruit that's too old to sell, dented cans of fruit, stuff like that so it's just a matter of paying to heat the still. Since ethanol does have a lower energy quotient it's even harder to save money like this, but if gas prices keep going up it could start to make a lot of sense.

Some vehicles seem to handle higher mixtures better than others, there are a few mods to deliver extra fuel that can help.

 

HOLY CRAP! that thing is $2000???? I could design and build that in a half-day from about $200 in parts!

 

Illegal in Ca! Why? I'm guessing to protect all those fruits and nuts out there?

 

Edit: I'm an idiot, thinking of another binary mixture where you can get past the azeotrope.

 

I've seen people drink it straight and they get stupid drunk very fast. It's just too potent.