Removing the ethanol

[fredintoon]

For those who are concerned about modern gas being ~10% ethanol, there's this kit you can buy that removes it:-
http://www.ethanil.co.uk/
From what I can tell from the site there's nothing in the kit that couldn't be bought at a local hardware store at perhaps 1/4 the cost but it's interesting that there's enough demand for a de-ethanol device that there's one on the market.

 

[pamcopete]

fredintoon,

There are several gas stations in my town that pump ethanol free gas. The bloom is off the ethanol craze as one of the advantages, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, has evaporated due to wide spread fracking and the collapse of oil prices.

In addition, studies by the green people themselves have revealed that the choice of corn as the main source for ethanol is less than optimum and that some other more exotic crop should have been used, but, of course, most of the other more optimum sources are expensive, which deflates one of the other objectives of using ethanol in the first place.

Then we have the economic hit that using 40% of our corn crop for a motor fuel has had on the food chain, most acutely with the higher cost of corn used as a feed for livestock which has hit the cattle industry. There are other unintended consequences of using corn as a source of ethanol including substitute sources of feed for cattle which have arguable impacted the quality of beef.

So, we may be witnessing the beginning of the end for this poorly thought out experiment.

 

[peanut]

lets hope so ....

Very informative pete thanks

 

[Higgy]

Yeah, what Pete said!

The high costs of corn feed for livestock is the reason you can't buy a pound of hamburger for <$6.00 around here anymore. Beef prices have soared. Kind of irritating that when you reach a point in your life where you realize that the struggle is over and you want to eat whatever you like, then its too bloody expensive to buy!

 

[grizld1]

Amen, Pete! And it's not just the cost of corn and the destructive effect on the food chain that makes ethanol a losing proposition as a fuel component. A lot of energy is consumed in producing ethanol, and the bottom line environmental effect is pretty dismal.

 

[fredintoon]

- - - we have the economic hit that using 40% of our corn crop for a motor fuel has had on the food chain, most acutely with the higher cost of corn used as a feed for livestock which has hit the cattle industry. There are other unintended consequences of using corn as a source of ethanol including substitute sources of feed for cattle which have arguable impacted the quality of beef.
So, we may be witnessing the beginning of the end for this poorly thought out experiment.

Hi pete,
"Hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a point of principle"
I don't see ethanol free gas in the USA until they drop the government's corn farmers subsidy.
On a related topic, time was that Brazil was big into ethanol fuelled vehicles, making the ethanol from their vast supply of sugar cane waste.
There were two pumps at Brazilian gas stations, one with 17% ethanol for the gas-burning vehicles; t'other with ethanol for the alcohol fuelled vehicles.
The ethanol was cut with 17% gasoline to discourage the Brazilians from drinking it.
But that was before Brazil discovered their huge offshore oil fields.
I wonder what Brazilian cars are burning these days?
Hi Higgy,
about the beef; TV news this morning sez that US health extremists want red meat to be packaged with the same health warnings you see on tobacco products because of claims that red meat is a carcinogen.
I see the latest Green lifestyle:-
Eat nothing but corn to save yourself from cancer.
Devise a bowel gas collector to run the cars on methane.

 

[gggGary]

I'll make a strong guess that kit involves adding water which combines with the ethanol that mix then separates from the gas. leaving you with a batch of really bad booze to dispose of and gasoline. Umm no thanks.
Wait; government mandate, unintended consequences, market distortions, a generally worse situation than we started with? Who'd a guessed?
But yes it traces back to farm subsidies. I notice how much clearer the air is now than 40 years ago.

 

[jetmechmarty]

All you have to do is add water to the gasoline. Once it settles to the bottom, you sump out the water and you're ethanol free. Your octane will be lower as well, so it's best to start with 93.

 

[EvenmoreXS]

I think it would be cool if pop corn came out of my exhaust at highway speeds....

 

[fredintoon]

I think it would be cool if pop corn came out of my exhaust at highway speeds....

Hi Evenmore,
it'd look cool but you'd best not eat it.
Eating popcorn dressed with butter would be good.
Eating popcorn dressed with 20W50 would put an entirely different meaning to
Taking a high speed run

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Butter as an engine lubricant?


Mmmmm, butter...

 

[EvenmoreXS]

Id be fine with the smell of popcorn but that would only benefit the people behind me....

Butter as an lubricant... better not be butter from something that has to eat corn to make the butter or we would be right back where this tread started...



mmmmmm, butter.... 2nd'ed

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Id be fine with the smell of popcorn but that would only benefit the people behind me....

Reroute the exhaust. Easy, it comes out the front already.

...Butter as an lubricant... better not be butter from something that has to eat corn to make the butter or we would be right back where this tread started...

Dairy cattle. They eat grass.
If it was possible, Wisconsin would've mandated it.


Mmmmmmm, grass.....?

 

[aldo5468]

In addition to Gary's concerns, consider this: US refineries no longer make finished, 87 octane regular grade, ethanol-free (E0) gasoline or at most, very, very little of it. For regular grade gasoline, they make 84 octane blend-for-oxygenate blending gasoline (BOB) that must be mixed 9:1 with ethanol before delivery to retail outlets to bring octane for regular-grade, salable gasoline up to the 87 level legally required almost everywhere in the US, except for some high-altitude areas. BOB is cheaper for them to make than 87 octane E0, and ethanol is the cheapest, least-toxic octane booster available in the volume needed. I have no idea what concoction might be left after using some elixir to remove the ethanol from legally salable E10 in the US, but if it doesn't also restore octane to the minimum levels required in regular, mid-grade or premium gasoline, whatever you buy for your vehicle, you ain't gonna be happy with paying more for less performance.

 

[fredintoon]

Hi 2Many,
these latest posts make it seem that a popcorn vending XS650 may even be feasible.
What's needed?
An engine lubricant that's OK to eat.
Not butter, it burns too easy. Olive & coconut oil blend should be OK.
2 into 1 high pipes with a wire mesh collector basket or divert into a sidecar.
Popping corn injectors just at the exhaust pipes' first bend.
Building one would be a first, eh?

 

[pamcopete]

During WWII a B29 bomber made a precautionary landing at an airbase in the Pacific that was not equipped to maintain the B29. In fact, this particular air base didn't have much of anything, including engine oil that was needed to fill up one of the B29 engines that had a bad leak which caused this incident in the first place.

However, it turned out that this particular base was a transit point for all sorts of food stuff, including a vast storage of peanut oil, which has a smoking point of 450F, so they poured a few gallons of peanut oil into the oil tanks for the affected engine and off it went back to its base of operations, so if you want to pop some corn in your XS650, just use some peanut oil in the sump.

 

[racerdave]

That b29 story is interesting Pete.

 

[barncat]

to pamcopete's first point: "wide spread fracking"- yeah everywhere but in NY where our fucking socialist NYC governor banned it after the state pretended to study it for 7 years, screwing my wife and me out of several hundred thousand dollars and regional Southern Tier farmers out of billions. it's natural gas here not oil, but the process is identical. this is inherently a political thread, so perhaps one brief comment can slide... logic does not really intrude on green activist's thinking, including using food for fuel.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

... divert into a sidecar...

Didn't see THAT one coming.
You just got a new riding buddy.

... if you want to pop some corn in your XS650, just use some peanut oil in the sump.

That'll work.
We deep-fry turkeys in peanut oil.


Much tastier than B-29s.

... if it doesn't also restore octane to the minimum levels required in regular, mid-grade or premium gasoline, whatever you buy for your vehicle, you ain't gonna be happy with paying more for less performance.

Perhaps a revisit of the engine design is in order.
One of my favorite inventers is Russell Bourke.

http://www.bourke-engine.com

The claim is that his scotch-yoke engine is inherently immune to the 'knock' experienced in angular conrod engines, and will run on almost anything...

 

[EvenmoreXS]

I may have created a monster.....

Hi 2Many,
these latest posts make it seem that a popcorn vending XS650 may even be feasible.
What's needed?
An engine lubricant that's OK to eat.
Not butter, it burns too easy. Olive & coconut oil blend should be OK.
2 into 1 high pipes with a wire mesh collector basket or divert into a sidecar.
Popping corn injectors just at the exhaust pipes' first bend.
Building one would be a first, eh?