Hello all,
 I was searching the database for alcohol and ran across the Capt'n inquiry on alcohol. This is kind of an old thread and I hope there's no objection to my resurrecting it. I think this is/should be, a very important topic for most of us. Why? You ask.
A few months ago I went to a lecture by David Blume on making alcohol. I originally went because I had thought the lecture was on biodiesel, which he did discuss to some extent. His book "Alcohol Can Be A Gas" at
www.permaculture.com is a must read for the Capt'n and anyone else wanting to check out alcohol. I have nothing to do with this book or David Blume. I only met him once. But between his lecture and the book, it's made a believer out of me. Here are a few things that might spark your interest.
Alcohol will run great in a diesel, although not at 100%. Alcohol will not mix with petroleum diesel by itself. You can mix 50% alcohol, 25% biodiesel (which does mix with alcohol) and 25% petroleum diesel together. They mix well and it runs clean.
This runs on Diesel farm equipment, but shouldn't be a problem in a listeroid either.
Many complain that ethanol drives up the price of food. Most of the Alcohol made in the states is from corn. Although it works well, an acre of corn only provides ~250 gallons of alcohol. Try sorghum at 800-1000 gallons per acre or sugar beets at ~900. Capt'n are you listening. Here's why you want to use sugar-based items like sugar cane and sugar beets instead of starchy items. You don't have to cook them. Starches have to be boiled for ~30-60 min. Saves you lots of BTU's compared to cooking starches like corn.
How many "till up the dirt" Farmers do we have at this forum? These are the people that could use alcohol the most. They’re the ones with the land, equipment and time to grow and process the crops; Guy's like the Capt'n who might have some of the sugar crops and waste fruit lying around. For the rest of us... Just about any waste product with sugar or starches in them will work. Stale bread, old candy (any candy factory by you?), waste soda, bad doughnuts. You get the picture. You do have to cook starches though. It's an additional step in the process and uses additional BTU's.
Alcohol works in gas and diesel engines, burns clean, stores great, has a high octane rating and can be made darn cheap, about $1.40 gal if you buy corn and use propane. If you have access to sugar/starches it can be made even cheaper.Â
You have to register with the Fed's to get a permit (it's free). A small distillers permit will allow someone to make 3000 gallons a year on a still. If everyone on this forum also had a permit, they could make 3000 gallons each per year (time permitting) on the same still. That’s a bit impractical for this forum but would work quite nicely in your local area with a few friends. That's where David say's we need to be making the fuel anyway, locally.Â
There's a lot more but I don't want to put anyone to sleepÂ