William McCormick

The problem with ethanol is that it has no anti-shock additives as gasoline has. So it creates two problems, it creates static electricity when handled without special precautions, and two if it is subjected to high voltage as a dielectric in a capacitor it will detonate as a blown capacitor does. Gasoline contains small trace amounts of radioactive substances that ionize the gasoline which makes it more of a conductor. Similar to the radioactive material in smoke detectors that ionize the air in the detector. When you see a spark when opening electrical switching points or doing lift ARC TIG welding you are witnessing a blown air capacitor or condenser.

Your home light switch is an air capacitor that charges and discharges 120 times a second to stop the flow of electricity. When the points break or open the air over such a short distance cannot stop the flow of electricity and the air capacitor blows creating a very hot plasma a miniature explosion. This can happen with ethanol. Only electricity stops electricity. In an insulator, one particle holds off two particles, and two hold off four, and so on. That is how insulators or dielectrics work, they do not at first guard against the flow of electricity, only when they are charged in a ramping voltage through their thickness do they stop the flow of electricity. The dielectric and ARC are what kill most people.

Sincerely,

William McCormick

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Hi Aaron. Welcome to Permies!

You make an interesting proposal. I would love to see something like this in operation.

To start, I would suggest thinking about what work you want to accomplish with the energy. Think about what the end goal is, and work back from that. Is it the best way to get the job done (aside from being a cool project)?

Assuming an ethanol-fired generator is a good fit, off the top of my head I can see two main challenges.

First, making and distilling ethanol to a level of purity that will run in an internal combustion engine. Basic distilling is simple enough. I wonder what's needed to get high concentrations?

Second, finding or modifying an engine to run on ethanol. I've heard that ethanol eats the fuel system seals on older engines. Also, there may be requirements for special additives, oil or other lubricants to replace those in gasoline (for example, special oil is required for propane fired engines). I can't speak to carburetor adjustments, other than noting that ethanol has less energy per volume of fuel.

I think this was done in Brazil and possibly Cuba maybe 40 years ago.

Phew, the more I look at the work to be done, the more I wonder if solar panels might be easier!

One nice thing about ethanol is that it does not deteriorate as gasoline and diesel fuel do. The downside is that if you store it in 55-gallon drums you must connect a ground rod to the drums because ethanol is shockable. Lightning can detonate them with a rather surprising blast. If you see them in pharmaceutical companies they are always bonded to ground.


Sincerely,

William McCormick