Biopowered - vegetable oil and biodiesel forum
General => Chatter => Topic started by: zatawitono on June 03, 2014, 06:44:15 PM
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i want to find 1 forum like this , but the topic is bioethanol . for gain my knowledge
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Isnt the process pretty much the same?
I would imagine you would have to speak to the americans - in the uk, ethanol is much more expensive, so noone uses it.
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Can't say I've come across one dedicated to ethanol use.
We could look at an ethanol section on here ... we have many ethanol experts as members, but their experience is limited to human consumption.
What experience of ethanol as a fuel do you have? I assume you are thinking of manufacture from biomass.
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Hi all
Just a quick reply to this but the production of any kind of ethanol in this country is very heavily regulated so would never be allowed as a hobby .
For me to do it I would need to jump many many hoops so will be leaving that till I retire.
Paul
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The OP in in Indonesia.
Hi ya Paul, how y'doin'?
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Indonesia seems to be a bit finickity about alcohol too.
Is it just basically the same alcohol as what is in liquor, just that it doesn't have to taste nice, and it's in bigger quantitys?
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Is it just basically the same alcohol as what is in liquor, just that it doesn't have to taste nice, and it's in bigger quantitys?
Spot on.
Its just the next in the series.
Methanol -
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f1/Methanol_Lewis.svg/100px-Methanol_Lewis.svg.png)
Ethanol -
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Ethanol-2D-flat.png/100px-Ethanol-2D-flat.png)
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It looks simple to produce. Could be pretty handy in a petrol back up genny, so long as the fact wasn't broadcast all over the place.
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The issue with ethanol production from biomass is that the energy required to boost the percentage ethanol (ie distillation) is significant.
I saw a website years back where a chap in america was sorting out enough to run his mower on, through windfall fruit, and a solar still, but its a lot of effort for not much return.
Yeasts will die at less than 20% volume of ethanol. So, for a couple of hundred litres of product, youll need to brew over 1000ltrs of fluid.
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Ahh, not as simple as it seems then. Oh well.
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thanks all for the reply and the information that you give .
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There are much better ways of generating petrol-like fuel substitutions.
One such method is to use heat to break down a feedstock into what chemists call Syngas - a mix of CO and H. This will run a stationary engine directly, but could be combined into hydrocarbons by using the Fischer–Tropsch process. The resulting hydrocarbon mix can then be spilt by fractional distillation. The Fischer-Tropsch can be tuned to produce the bulk of the hydrocarbons of a specific length.
The beauty is with this method, is doesn't matter what your feedstock is as long as it's organic. Tyres, plastic, newspapers, grass clippings, doesn't matter. Although moisture tends to screw with it a bit.
It's something I'd very much like to play with at some point.
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Hi all
Just a quick reply to this but the production of any kind of ethanol in this country is very heavily regulated so would never be allowed as a hobby .
For me to do it I would need to jump many many hoops so will be leaving that till I retire.
Paul
Hi Paul. Hope you are well.
Good to see you back on the forum, shame about the over regulation. It wouldn't stop us discussing how to do it though.
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There are much better ways of generating petrol-like fuel substitutions.
One such method is to use heat to break down a feedstock into what chemists call Syngas - a mix of CO and H. This will run a stationary engine directly, but could be combined into hydrocarbons by using the Fischer–Tropsch process. The resulting hydrocarbon mix can then be spilt by fractional distillation. The Fischer-Tropsch can be tuned to produce the bulk of the hydrocarbons of a specific length.
The beauty is with this method, is doesn't matter what your feedstock is as long as it's organic. Tyres, plastic, newspapers, grass clippings, doesn't matter. Although moisture tends to screw with it a bit.
It's something I'd very much like to play with at some point.
All sounds very interesting ... wikipedia says you can make methanol with that method.
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i looked into this years ago to make organic methanol. the problem is you need a licence for a still from hmrc. i did try to get one. but as paul says too many hoops. bonded warehouse regular inspections lots of paperwork. try it without telling them and you are in big trouble,if you dont blow yourself up of course. i believe some eastern europeans may be able to help.
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i looked into this years ago to make organic methanol. the problem is you need a licence for a still from hmrc. i did try to get one. but as paul says too many hoops. bonded warehouse regular inspections lots of paperwork. try it without telling them and you are in big trouble,if you dont blow yourself up of course. i believe some eastern europeans may be able to help.
But, but ... I (and many others) have been distilling methanol for years. Let's hope there's a difference between making and recovering!
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It looks simple to produce. Could be pretty handy in a petrol back up genny, so long as the fact wasn't broadcast all over the place.
Another downside is that it's not a direct substitute for petrol as there's a significant difference in the KW/Kg, so runs too lean, which is bad. Hence those 'dual fuel' cars that adjust the fuelling for E85.
B100 contains a bit less energy than derv but doesn't cause us problems (modern dpfs excepted etc.)
Plus it's hygroscopic, like methanol, but not as corrosive (maybe).
For a genny, tinkering with some misfuel, often 90% petrol, is worth a go, I reckon.