I'm trying to figure out how to separate E85 fuel into ethanol and gas so I can use only the ethanol!?

Question

I have an Origo alcohol stove in my house that I run off of ethanol, or denatured alcohol (fossil fuel free cooking!). Unfortunately, denatured alcohol is $13/gallon, while E85 is ~$3/gallon. But I don't want to use E85 in my house stove, because burning the 15% gasoline makes for poor indoor air quality. So, I want to know if there is some way to separate the ethanol from the gasoline? Freezing, or evaporation? I have no idea! Alternately, is there another source for 100% ethanol, I'd buy in bulk, in a tank, if I could!

Answer 1

I think the best way is to boil off the gasoline. Gas boils at a much lower temperature than alcohol, so you should be able to do some kind of distilling to boil off the gas.

Answer 2

You can separate the Ethanol from the Gasoline the same way that Ethanol is separated from water and Gasoline is separated from crude oil. You have to make a "still" that boils off the gasoline and collects it down line. Since this is very, very, very, VERY dangerous, I do not recommend trying this at home, or anywhere else for that matter.

There are some stations that sell E100 (actually it is technically E99) where you can get almost pure ethanol. They are mostly in the Midwest and California, and you have to hunt for them. You still have about 1% gasoline in the mixture, as gasoline is the cheapest denaturing chemical that has burn properties close enough to ethanol.

Your alchohol stove does not have to burn ethanol. It is made to burn almost any alchohol if I am not mistaken. Butenol and propenol should also work well in your stove.

I have found that most of these stoves use a gelled alchohol like Sterno, or some other brand. If this is not the case, I am sure Sterno or the equivelent can be used in your stove with some modification, either to the Sterno or your stove.

There are also places like Gander Mountain that sell cooking fuel, which is essentially alchohol fuel. Just look around, because not everything that is an alchohol based fuel is directly labeled that way.

Answer 3

using E85 lays off hundreds human beings workers interior the oil and gas industry, so take that one off you checklist. Corn ethanol makes almost 10% extra capability to 10% much less capability that it takes to enhance and make the gas. national geographic debunked you one million/6 ratio. E85 engines at the instant are not optimized to run on E85, they might desire to make the engine inefficient so it could run on E0, E10, E85 or a blend, so as that they at the instant are not thermodynamically from now on proper, as a remember of fact they are much less useful, than a engine tuned to a fastened 80 5 Octane gas. Ethanol includes much less capability consistent with gallon, so any volume of ethanol might desire to by way of the guidelines of the universe, get much less miles consistent with gallon. Ethanol fee extra to make than gas, so the fee you spot on the pump on E85 is precisely on a daily basis, a similar fee as gas on an capability foundation. right it incredibly is a fact that blows your E85 love affair away, the legal definition of E85 is that it is going to comprise a minimum of 70% to seventy 5% (in line with state) ethanol. and not extra advantageous than 80 5% ethanol. wager WHAT, the blenders make it meet the minimum because of the fact the fee of ethanol is so extreme and it throws out all those people who run the 80 5% ratio numbers. Plug in 70% ethanol and bingo each thing provides up on mileage and fee. SO i'm right here to tutor you that E85 isn't what you think of it is.

Answer 4

Obviously there is another source for ethanol. But I wonder if the bulk needed to get it for $3 a gallon is less than a million gallons.

Answer 5

U could use an old cream separator . U may need to run it at a higher rpm ,but it worked well for us in separating lube oil from water and sludge.