Category: ethanol

With the continued growth of the use of ethanol as a fuel additive for cars and trucks, there are a few people shunning the technology believing they will have to buy a new car once the blended gasoline is prevalent. However, there is a god chance that your currently vehicle sitting in your garage is already an ethanol vehicle.

All major automotive manufacturers have backed the use of E-10 ethanol in vehicles that burn regular gasoline and there has been no evidence that its use causes any harm or damage to the engine. An ethanol vehicle has shown no significant decrease in mileage, power or performance that those that run strictly on gasoline.

Actually, since ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline, it can actually help prevent deposits from building up on fuel injectors, helping to main the original gas mileage and avoid the loss of power typically seen in cars with high mileage. Gasoline refiners have altered their formulas over the years as basically any vehicle that burns regular gasoline can be considered an ethanol vehicle once an ethanol blend has been added to its tank.

Changes Needed For Biodiesel and Pure Alcohol

E-10 ethanol, a mix of 10 percent ethanol and gasoline, has little or no impact on the efficiency of a gasoline engine. However, for those wanting to operate their own still and run their car on straight alcohol, a few modifications will be needed. Things like input jets, main jet and air fuel mixture to turn it into a pure ethanol vehicle. Just do not drink the fuel.

There are several classes of race cars that burn pure alcohol and because of it being highly combustible, is not recommended in the family wagon with expert advice and direction. You can easily spot a pure ethanol vehicle, or more accurately smell one, as the burning alcohol has a distinct odor.

It has been said that diesel engines can run on just about any burnable liquid and they can for a while before something in the system gets gummed up. Running an unmodified diesel as an ethanol vehicle will harm the engine as ethanol burns significantly hotter than diesel, or corn oil, and can cause harm to the inner workings of the engine.

Modifications can be made without a lot of difficulty and there are conversion kits available, but currently many buses and trucks are using E-85 diesel, which is a blend of diesel fuel and 85 percent ethanol.

Ethanol, in its diluted and aqueous solution form has a sweet flavor while as a concentrated solution it has a burning taste. The melting point of ethanol is -114.1 degrees centigrade and the density of ethanol is 0.789 g/ml. at twenty degrees centigrade. Ethanol that is derived from the fermentation process has varied degrees of concentration that ranges from a few percent to approximately 14 percent and above this percentage it destroys the zymase enzyme and therefore there is no more fermentation possible.

Ethanol Should Not Contain Water

Producers of ethanol need to keep tabs on the density of ethanol as well as water content of the ethanol stream to ensure quality. In case the ethanol contains significant quantities of water and even five percent would qualify as a significant amount, it would, through its molecular structure, act more like water and less like ethanol especially when mixed with petrol that is a hydrocarbon solution. Wet ethanol can be mixed with petrol and upon mixing, the ethanol will split from the petrol and settle at the bottom of the container and the petrol will rise to the top.

To measure the density of ethanol one may use an alcohol monitoring system from Anton Paar which is very accurate density transducer that can measure density non-stop as well as read the percentage of water and also concentration of alcohol. This monitoring of density of ethanol system comprises of a density transducer as well as an MPDS evaluation unit and it gives highly accurate as well as reliable readings that help in ensuring quality control as well as monitoring of the product.

Ethanol has a greater energy density as compared with methanol and its density is less than that of water. The energy density of ethanol is not as much as that of gasoline and is merely 64 percent and so takes one hundred and fifty times the amount of ethanol to give the same amount of energy as would be produced by gasoline. This may result in higher prices being paid for ethanol as compared to gasoline prices. Put realistically, one would require four gallons of ethanol to conserve one gallon of gasoline. But, because the energy density of ethanol is less per gallon and one requires one hundred and fifty percent more ethanol, it actually works out to six gallons of ethanol instead of four.