Homemade gasoline to fight off high gas prices.

Greetings! I'm here to find out how I can make my own gasoline from ethanol and stuff like that. I'm also looking for ways to help me and my family deal with the high gas prices that's heading our way in this country and the world. Please let me know if there are other ways to create our own gasoline besides ethanol. Thanks!

Probably have better luck looking at alternative fuels.  There was quite a lot done along these lines in the UK during WW2.  Also in the mid-70s when gas was more than twice the current price.  

Gas engines tend to get fussy so you need something low tech (pre-computer) to convert to homemade gas.  It's about converting the way the engine runs as well as making the gas.  Hard to get it to match up well, but not impossible.

But something like a biodiesel or wood gasifier system works quite well.  Easier to convert to homemade fuel.

Personally, I just stay home as much as possible.  

Check out the Drive on Wood website for some ideas. Some of these are really cool.

Project Farm did a series on running engines on all sorts of unfortunate things.  Pretty interesting, if nothing else.


The main takeaway I got was: engines (small engines, at least) can tolerate a surprising variety of things in small quantities, and suffer less crud buildup than I would have guessed.
IMO, if I was going to try adding something -- hydrogen, methane, whatever -- to a car I didn't consider particularly precious, I would start off running on straight gas and then gradually add more combustible X to the mix.  Once power starts suffering, maybe dial it back a notch and call that good.

In modern computerized cars you could also get a cheap bluetooth OBD-II scanner to use with your phone (Torque app is good) and keep an eye on "Fuel Trims" to see if combustion is getting too out of whack.

Which ingredients I can use to make simple gasoline? I'm trying to make mine substainable as I could so as not harm the environment.

You don't make gas out of ethanol. You can add ethanol to "cut" the gas (and increase octane). A chainsaw will run on straight ethanol with minimal customization. So a 2-stroke motorcycle ought to be doable. An older truck is definitely possible but you better have a lot of spare time and a solid understanding of mechanics and a very big still.

My opinion is that it isn't feasible to make your own fuel for "normal use".

Dan Fish wrote:My opinion is that it isn't feasible to make your own fuel for "normal use".

I agree. When it comes to energy (in all forms), what I have observed is that reducing consumption is the investment that pays off every time.  Sometimes this involves investing in more efficient equipment; but most often it requires a conscious change of habits.

Gas is made from crude oil that is processed and smothered in additives.  You would need all of those to mix your own gas at home.

The more complex the engine the less tolerance they have for any imbalance in the fuel ratio.  Something like a car would more likely cost you more in repair fees from using homemade fuel alternatives than you would save.

However, simple engines (like a lawnmower, some motorcycles, many deasil engines) can be adapted to run on homemade fuel.  This is quite common in times of fuel shortages (1974 being the most recent, but also the first half of the 20th C).  

The key is, you need to adjust the engine to run on the new fuel.  It's not just making fuel.

Then there are alternatives like transforming the car to electric or a wood gasifier system (linked above).  My great uncle had a motorcycle he converted to the wood gasifier system during the Great War that he kept going until the 1960s.  It ran like a dream.

But all of these have a strong toll on the environment.  The best choice is to reduce travel as much as possible.  Changing the engine or buying your own ingredients to mix the fuel would probably - short term - be worse for the environment than sticking with your current car and driving 50% less.

Plan your trip so you can do multiple stops and only need to take right turns (or left in the countries that drive on that side of the road).  Carpooling is growing in popularity here.  Rideshare... lots of options but it is a matter of adjusting it to where you live.

But if you do want to modify your vehicle to take homemade fuel, we'll need to know more about it before we can say if it is possible to modify it and what would be involved. tell us more.

One point to consider: the additives in gasoline, in part, provide protection against wear. When using fuels like natural gas, propane, or (I believe) ethanol, special engine oils are used to compensate for this.

Back in the old days, I have read that cars ran on gasoline, kerosene, and ethanol.  Though the ethanol was discontinued due to prohibition.

The Engines are much more sophisticated today than they were back then and repairs are way more costly.

Mixing something to try to make homemade gasoline is not something I would not want my neighbors doing as this sounds like it is way too dangerous.

Unfortunately, I have lived too near the Texas refineries during my lifetime to want anything to do with that sort of thing.

Let's talk about safety, so... you'd be replacing "gas-station gasoline" with some concoction of flammable liquids that you yourself grow/distill/refine and/or purchase at some lesser cost per volume than the "gas-station gas", and then blend together into "home-brew-gas", at your home!

In order for this endeavor to be "worthwhile", you're not considering just one tank of "gas". You'd be making/mixing a LOT of fuel, in your garage, or just outside your home? And storing enough materials and finished "gas" on hand to not make it an every other day task?
I'd check your local regulations about fuel storage, and volumes allowed, permitting, etc... before you begin. Any required equipment, permits/fees, fines, etc... might exceed any of your expected savings. Fines or costs for spill cleanups can be costly.

Then there's all sorts of other considerations... your time vs. money (and the realized savings over "gas-station gas"), your health/exposure to petroleum/solvents, chances of ruining the motor in your vehicle (possibly the most or second most expensive thing you own, possibly critical to getting to or doing a job, costly to replace). You could save on gas by using less, combining trips, home delivery, moving closer to a job if you commute.

You might find other places to DIY and save more. Homegrown salad/vegetables, rainwater catchment, your own maintenance/repairs.
Or choose to discontinue use of "products" or services you don't need, or that are "a luxury."

It would be far simpler and less expensive to build your  own electric car.  Lots of people are doing it, and I expect a lot more will be doing it soon.

It would be far simpler and less expensive to build your  own electric car.

It would maybe be cheaper than building a fuel refinery in your garage, but sadly electric conversions are not a viable way to save money either. My electric truck would pay for the conversion cost in 50,000 miles if gas cost $6.80 a gallon. As it stands, even with "free" electricity, it will probably never pay back the cost of parts (and lets not even speak of the labor). I think one would be very lucky to put together an electric car with more than 50 miles of range for under 10,000 dollars.

Buying a used electric car will give you a lot more bang for your buck than converting, and will save you the time (likely a couple years for an amateur working in their spare time). It is a very big project.

As someone has already mentioned, wood-gas is the most likely route to go for creating your own road-fuel on the cheap. Someone with a modicum of mechanical ability could put together a charcoal gasifier, and make their own fuel in a barrel from any woody feedstock. Someone on Drive on Wood built a functional gasifier for a corolla and didnt even use a welder. You will spend a lot of time making fuel, and tinkering with the vehicle, so it is really only suited to someone who really likes that sort of thing, and has a lot of time to dedicate to keeping it running.

There is a way to make gasoline from plastics. It helps if you're familiar with the process of distilling alcohol, because it's actually very similar.

The majority of household plastics will work. I'm told bottle caps are a good one to start with. Look up "DIY plastics pyrolysis" for more information. Please be very careful, you are literally cooking up flammables!

Once you've pyrolyzed your plastics, you'll probably need to further distill the resulting oil to separate out the part you want. I don't have the temperature ranges memorized, but there are ranges for the different types of fuel.

Personally, I think it would be easier to build a charcoal gasifier and make charcoal out of waste products. But, making actual gasoline is certainly possible.


(edited to fix a typo)

Which countries use more ethanol for oil?

Blake Lenoir wrote:Which countries use more ethanol for oil?

I don't think they are interchangeable.  

ethanol is a kind of alcohol.  
Oil, or petroleum oil is a kind of hydrocarbon viscous substance.  

Ethanol is added to gasoline as an additive but is not a replacement for it.  I suspect the USA has one of the higher percentages of ethanol in their gas (I know because my car hates USA gas and will stall out on it as my engine has very fine tolerances).  This was mostly a political move to appear eco-friendly which had problematic results.  

But there are places where they design engines to run on ethanal.  

Anymore safe ways to create substainable fuel for transport besides ethanol? I don't wanna keep on harming the fragile ecosystems on the earth.

I think you're looking for a silver bullet. As are we all. I don't think it exists.

Nature is a strict taskmaster: if you get a benefit here, there is an equivalent cost over there.

Many options exist on an industrial scale, such as hydrogen carrying fuels. Of course anhydrous ammonia (NH4) will suffocate you and freeze your eyeballs solid. And hydrogen peroxide, in fuel concentrations, is an excellent explosive for blowing up things that maybe should be left alone.

My point is that there is no free lunch. Unless you're a fine burro like this one. The free lunch means he has to pull a small cart, carrying you, on occasion. So not entirely free; but pretty sustainable.

Carl Nystrom wrote:

It would be far simpler and less expensive to build your  own electric car.

It would maybe be cheaper than building a fuel refinery in your garage, but sadly electric conversions are not a viable way to save money either. My electric truck would pay for the conversion cost in 50,000 miles if gas cost $6.80 a gallon. As it stands, even with "free" electricity, it will probably never pay back the cost of parts (and lets not even speak of the labor). I think one would be very lucky to put together an electric car with more than 50 miles of range for under 10,000 dollars.

Buying a used electric car will give you a lot more bang for your buck than converting, and will save you the time (likely a couple years for an amateur working in their spare time). It is a very big project.

As someone has already mentioned, wood-gas is the most likely route to go for creating your own road-fuel on the cheap. Someone with a modicum of mechanical ability could put together a charcoal gasifier, and make their own fuel in a barrel from any woody feedstock. Someone on Drive on Wood built a functional gasifier for a corolla and didnt even use a welder. You will spend a lot of time making fuel, and tinkering with the vehicle, so it is really only suited to someone who really likes that sort of thing, and has a lot of time to dedicate to keeping it running.

I don't think we are talking about the same thing.  I don't mean a commercial conversion kit.  If you check the DIY electric car forums, many, many people are building electric cars.  People are building good, solid commuter vehicles for between $2 and $3,000.  The range is a limiting factor of course, but 50 mile range will work for commuting for the vast majority of people.  Building an electric vehicle isn't a weekend project, but compared to building a gasoline refinery, I'm going with the electric car build.  As far as wood gas, I admit to not knowing a lot about it.  I have the book "Wood Gasifier Builder's Bible" and I can tell you, that build is much farther out of my skill set than building an electric car.  Everyone's skill set if so different, each person would have to weigh the options and decide what they are comfortable with.

We use significant amounts of ethanol here (Brazil). Some cars like mine run on gasoline or ethanol. Others also have an option for natural gas. These flex fuel cars get poorer mileage and usually require more attention to spark plugs, but it is nice to have the option.
Plenty of ethanol-only motorcycles and cars.
Ethanol can be more or less green depending on how it is produced. If you're getting it off mass produced corn covered in gick, it's not great. Sugarcane can be (but isn't necessarily) slightly less terrible.
There is also biodiesel, biogas.....

But all involve major productions to produce the fuel, and it sounds like what you really want is a bicycle or a traction animal (equine, bovine, large dog, i've even seen goats pulling carts).

Tereza! What's going on? In your country, what can you all do to keep fuel substainable for all vehicles?

Fuel isn't just fuel.  There are so many types.  And so many types of engines.  

The second best way to get more sustainable fuel is to get an engine that can handle that fuel.

The best way is to reduce travel.  Burning is burning and it's a bit like saying "which of these chocolate bars will make me healthy if I eat lots and lots of it"

What type of engine are you starting with?  

I ride mostly on public transportation every day to work and other places.

id look into pyrolysis of plastic and liquification of wood gas with the Fisher-Tropsch reaction.  In theory you will get less energy out than you put in but if you may be able to use free firewood to run the reactions..

Pedal power! There are lots of unique bicycles and tricycles beyond the standard.  Cargo bikes and two passenger bikes and other pedal-powered machines are the way to go!  Search pedal power, human-powered machines, cargo bikes, low tech magazine and engineering for change for great resources.

What about for boats, ships and yachts?

There is also a fundamental ethical issue, when we are talking about turning food crops into food. Biodiesel and bioethanol etc... are responsible for driving up food prices, and driving deforestation globally. Your small scale project is a drop in the ocean compared to that, but it is part of the same spectrum.

The technologically proven mainstream alternative to high petrol prices is electric vehicles. It is rapidly scaling up, and in the coming years more and more second hand EVs will come on the secondary market.

Converting plastic into fuel requires more energy than the yield produces.

Ethanol has an affinity to water. Water is very bad for engines. It also doesn't have the power found in gasoline.

I believe if you really want to have big horsepower in a gasoline-starved environment, you must look to steam.

The Stanley Steamer motorcar is a prime example. Very unique boiler design -- very safe. They made 45HP twin-cylinder engines to go along with it.

I think steam power is about the only thing the average person can use to rival gasoline.

Also, the new wrap up study (by the University of Wisconsin, I think?)  on the addition of ethanol to gasoline shows that it is 20+ percent worse emissions-wise that just straight gasoline! I know it's controversial so I didn't want to instantly derail the thread and say that in my first post. It's just the stupid corn thing, they paid people to grow more corn for ethanol and we all know how "Big Corn" works in the US. The same study shows if we used something smart, like switchgrass for the ethanol it would have broke even, emissions-wise, at worst and likely been a 20% swing the other way. The good way. The intended way? Sometimes you have to wonder...

Are you sure about using switchgrass as a subsitute for corn as oil for cars and stuff?

Blake Lenoir wrote: Are you sure about using switchgrass as a subsitute for corn as oil for cars and stuff?

It's an industrial process, not a home brew operation. The plant material needs to be broken down before it can be fermented. Good explanation here:
http://switchgrass.okstate.edu/processingswitchgrasstobiofuel/liquid-biofuels

Blake Lenoir wrote: Greetings! I'm here to find out how I can make my own gasoline from ethanol and stuff like that. I'm also looking for ways to help me and my family deal with the high gas prices that's heading our way in this country and the world. Please let me know if there are other ways to create our own gasoline besides ethanol. Thanks!

As others have pointed out, you can't make gasoline from ethanol. These are basic ideas that can be considered as a way to fuel a vehicle on something other than petroleum:

1. Producer Gas: This is when you burn wood in a low-oxygen environment and add water to the mix. The water molecules break apart, you end up with a flammable mix of gasses that can run an internal combustion engine. The gas must be filtered to remove the ash, tar, and smoke.

2. Steam energy: A mostly forgotten technology from a century ago. It used to power trains and vehicles. Simply too inconvenient for modern life, but it works.

3. Charcoal in a diesel engine - You can cut diesel fuel with charcoal, or run pure charcoal cut with water, or just inject charcoal in a diesel engine. One of the problems is excessive engine wear.

All of these ideas will work and have been done before. It's an engineering challenge, it's an inconvenience (until the gas at the pump runs out of becomes even more unaffordable), but it can be done.

You might consider switching to diesel - it takes less refining than gasoline. We are working on a pyrolysis machine that will produce diesel and syngas from tires and plastic (hopefully even household garbage) when we get done with it. A young man from Georgia is coming out this summer to combine skills and experience with my husband - I am very hopeful we will make a lot of progress. His videos are quite informative, and entertaining, for anyone who would like to understand the process better. He has some smaller working models. They are going to start with a 55 gallon drum together.

Naturejab on Youtube

The government will issue you a cheap permit to distill your own ethanol legally, and you must add 15% gasoline to ensure that it can't be sold as liquor.

Essentially you are making E-85

Sugar beets is probably your best choice for fuel but there is many alternatives, the least of which is corn.

I have been thinking about making a backyard refinery using plastics as the feed stock. Diesel is easier to refine and old diesel engines are the most forgiving when it comes to imperfect fuels.

(Extremely small scale mainly for the learning process just incase SHTF and I NEED to scale up)

Neat idea! But how will you deal with the waste? Every refinery and chemical plant I have seen produces waste byproducts. A plastic refinery is surely not exempt. These things cannot simply be dumped down the drain. Many things are hypothetically possible, but the devil is in always in the pissy details.

It's my belief that a change of attitude, not a change of fuel is required.
Ethanol is made from plant material.
E85 I think is 85 % petrol and 15% ethanol.
Reduction of dem,and in every area of life is the solution, but I doubt anybody will take that up!

E-85 is 85% Ethanol 15% Petrol and its really too bad its not 100% Ethanol...

I'd much rather have an electric vehicle charged by the power of the sun but that's just not in the playbook right now.
I have friend who got 600 gallons of used motor oil from an oil change place and he filters it real good and runs his old ford diesel truck with it.