Alternative Fuels

[Bernard A. Reed III]

Does anyone have information reguarding the production & use of alcohol for
automotive use? I've been toying around with the ides of converting my 'toy'
into an alcohol burner.

Ben (b_r...@xroads.com)

[Eric Keerbs]

Can't help you on the production side, but since there are a lot of moonshiners
around the country, it can't be all that hard.

As for alcohol as a fuel: most fuel systems cannot handle straight alcohol
because of its corrosive nature. I can't give you more specifics than that,
because the book that I'm quoting (published in the '50s) didn't go into
more detail than that. Suffice it to say that there are some conversion
kits for certain aftermarket carburetors that will allow the use of
alcohol as a primary fuel. If you are modifying a daily driver that is
fuel injected, I do not know what parts you'd need to replace.

Although alcohol has a higher octane than gasoline (otherwise, top fuel
dragsters wouldn't burn it), it also does not produce as much energy per
pound as gasoline. Therefore, you will burn significantly more per mile
than gasoline. I seem to remember that you'd require about 275% more
alcohol to go the same distance as one tankful of gasoline, but that
number may be way off. However, when "oxygenated" fuel is sold around
here in the winter, I notice about a 10% drop in fuel economy on both
of our cars. The additives for "oxygenated" fuels are either MTBE or
ethanol.

Even once you get past the disadvantages, there is a safety consideration:
alcohol burns with an almost invisible flame, and if your car were to
catch fire, the fire department might not notice that it was on fire
until someone was injured.

There are "dual-fuel" fleet cars in California which are designed to run on
gasoline and a special gasohol (I think it was spec'd at 80% gasoline/20%
ethanol) which are produced by Ford. I don't think that there are any
production cars in the US designed for 100% alcohol, but I haven't followed
the auto industry very closely in the past several years.

This is not a comprehensive breakdown on the use of alcohol, and rather
than trying to discourage you from doing it, I am trying to provide some
of the basic information that you should consider. There are probably
a zillion other people out there who have more information that will
be useful for you.

Eric
('57 GMC under construction)