Making Your Own Ethanol

Haven't tried this yet, but based on discussion about making your own methane and/or gas, thought this article by Fred Musser at www.e85tips.com/ was interesting - especially for someone with land enough to grow initial feedstock or fruit used.:

MAKING YOUR OWN ETHANOL:

STEP ONE - CONVERSION PROCESS: Break down carbohydrate sugars, such as the starch from corn. Create it into "Mash." Grind or crush the feedstock (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.), then dilute and add an enzyme (alpha amylase) to turn the mixture into a liquid. Once liquified, a second enzyme is added (glucoamylase) to convert the starch into sugar. If the source is mainly sugar (i.e. rotten fruit, molasses, etc.) this conversion step can be skipped.

STEP TWO: FERMENT: Add yeast, and make it into a beer (wine)-type solution

STEP THREE: DISTILL: The beer (wine) solution needs to run through a still to extract the alcohol from the solution. The final distillate is now ethanol

STEP FOUR: FILTER: The ethanol now needs to be filtered to get rid of excess organic volatiles.

STEP FIVE: DEHYDRATE. The ethanol needs to be "dried." After the distillation process, there will be a certain amount of water in the ethanol you have just created. This can be dried by running your ethanol through Zeolite, a readily-available product for drying ethanol.

STEP SIX: Ethanol into E85 - Now simply convert the pure ethanol into E85 by adding 15% unleaded gasoline to your ethanol.

Making your own ethanol will require some initial investment, but the rewards will be very beneficial. You can make E85 for around $1.00 a gallon if you buy your corn, and for about $0.60 per gallon if you grow it. E85 Flex Fuel vehicles are becoming more and more popular. You may even drive one now, because many newer models are equipped to handle both full gasoline and E85. The easiest way to find out is to contact your dealer and have them run your vin number to see if your vehicle is compatible; check your owner's manual and/or the fuel door for your car to see if it has an E85 sticker.

Original at: http://www.e85tips.com/