Homemade gasoline to fight off high gas prices.

Electric vehicles still rely heavily on fossil fuels for charging. Ethanol is a more realistic alternative, although Ethanol hybrid would be even better...

Last time I looked into it, fuel-grade ethanol took more energy to produce than it delivered to the engine. Perhaps that has changed now?

I always suspected the ethanol fuel additive thing was a shell game -- a way to provide agricultural subsidies while skirting WTO rules against agricultural subsidies. But I can't prove it.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote: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.

Very well said! There is never a free lunch.

The 3 products would be the un-condensible gas witch would be recycled and flared off into the heating process. The liquids which are the target. And then the mysterious solids which is essentially carbon black.  In theory the heavy metals would be left in the petroleum coke from the original refinement. Wish I had my own independent lab to figure out what exactly is left over.  Can think of a ton of industrial uses which are far from back yard capable. Press briquettes?

William, I found this https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a31851426/what-is-e85-gas/

"E85 gas (also known as flex fuel) is a high-level combination of ethanol and gasoline that consists of 51 percent to 83 percent ethanol blended with gasoline. The percentage of ethanol depends on the geographical location and time of the year.28 Apr 2020"
In Australia it is often sold with 3 % ethanol and people are complaining its difficult to tune the vehicles. Does the same issue apply in North America?

I race sidecars with 100% methanol, and I use a lot more litres of that compared with petrol.
Is ethanol consumed at a great rate than petrol?

Yes most of the gasoline in the U.S. has up to 10% Ethanol, although some fuel stations sell 100% gasoline at an increased cost, and it can be better for older engines. Newer engines are fine with 10% Ethanol and E-85 should be reserved for flex fuel rated engines or high performance/high compression applications with special components to resist the alcohol and increased octane.

Also like you stated, the Ethanol will be consumed at a higher rate than gasoline. So in a flex fuel application, some of the cost savings is lost to slightly higher fuel consumption. However the benefit in a performance engine is much greater because Ethanol will produce more horsepower than standard gasoline.