Is there any way of producing 100% ethanol for less then 3$ a liter in great quantities.
yeah, steal it, then its free
>>7730830
brew it then distil it
>>7730845
You can't produce 100% pure ethanol through distillation, the most you can get is about 95%
>>7730856
why
>>7730856
95% is good enough. I want to use it as a fuel source.
>>7730842
>>7730859
Because the 95% mix evaporates at a lower temp than 100% alcohol.
>>7730842
Don't, chemical ethanol has trace amounts of methanol in it that will make you go blind at the very least.
>>7730859
Physical chemistry 101
Azeotropic mixture
>>7730830
First of all don't start with corn.
You can buy a 1 lb bag of sugar beet seeds for $15. The fertilizer will also be about $15. It says 10 lbs of seed per acre. So 0.1 acres; 662 gallons of ethanol per acre of sugar beets; 3.783 liters in a gallon, means you could produce a liter of ethanol for $0.12.
Excluding, you know, the cost of somehow blending a shit ton of sugar beets into a liquid, the yeast for fermentation, the cost of energy in distillation, the cost of all the equipment, etc. Ah well, I'm sure all that is negligible.
>>7730861
So does it have to be ethanol. Why not methanol or other alcohol?
>>7730830
I worked with Wageningen Unviversity on a project. the project was about getting bio ethanol out of algae. It was quite succesful. Maybe you can take a look at that.
>>7732077
>other alcohol
butanol is best fuel alcohol, as a direct replacement for gasoline
>>7732247
Which isomer?
>>7732315
Your mom configuration
>>7730830
Sugarcane.
Yes. Derive it from oil.
>>7730936
depends.
Any halfway decent distillery can separate them out, but nearly all industrial ethanol has dangerous additive agents specifically put in it to prevent people from drinking it.
With all chemicals it is best to assume it is not food safe unless explicitly labeled as such.
I remember when I thought about using some 95% grade agents for a project, wanted to make a and glaze dinner plates. Different vendors had different trace elements in that remaining 5%. One actually listed uranium in extremely low amounts. Ended up paying more for 98% with reputable bio safe vendor. You would be amazed at some profile comparisons for cheap Chinese sources, some are actually legit but many are cut in ways that can only be explained with willful hazardous waste contamination.
>>7730830
Algae
>>7730830
something like this maybe
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4385029/
>>7730859
When you distill something the vapor isn't 100 percent vapor of the lower bp liquid, there's a fraction that is the other liquid. Turns out that when you hit 96 percent alcohol in water, the vapor composition created by distillation is 96 percent alcohol and 4 percent water, so you're collecting the same thing you started with. Google azeotropic mizture
>>7734239
That is why we have very expensive molecular sieves which can separate out that last bit, getting us 100% (+ or - the few stay atoms which always seem to get in). Once done exposure to air and just about everything else will instantly contaminate it, and I still question what applications warrant manufacturing something like it. But point is we have the technology and to do it.
I have been told of some applications were using it gets you like a 0.1% performance gain, but cost wise it seems very questionable to me.
>>7730830
why would you want to? Fucks up engine performance and has the unintended consequence of running up food prices since a lot of food uses corn syrup. Cattle and livestock are fed corn that goes up which leads to higher meat prices. Corn that used to be grown for these uses are diverted for ethanol. NO to ethanol.
>>7730861
Just buy some fuel, if companies could make it that cheap they would, propane is like a dollar a can
>>7730830
Produce it in a really really poor country, paying people 10cents per hour.
You can produce it for free if you have the equipment and land.
Grow sugar-producing plants. Produce molasses (may be crappy, dirty). Some grain or potatoes. Use that to cultivate start-up batch of yeast. Also, wood.
Water, molasses, grain or potatoes. Let it sit for 3 days, then distill using wood for heat. There, your pretty moonshine. You might need to distill it a couple times for better purity.
jesus mother
EtOH runs around 95% due to hygroscopicity and the moisture in the air....
possession of a still of size over 1 gallon will have the ATF kicking your door in and beating up your wife and kids, shooting the dog...
but you can get a liense. just don't let them shoot you by accident
>>7730830
1 corn = 1 gallon of ethanol
