It’s time to make our own fuel, again.
Gas prices hit $4 in every state. In my hometown in New York State, it’s teetering around $4.90. Politics appears to be doing the opposite to bring it down.
The chemical engineer in me, the engineering in me, the scientist in me is thinking — “there has to be a solution”, at least one that doesn’t rely on lagging economic policy and bureaucratic begging. And no, I can’t afford an electric vehicle, like most Americans.
And then I remember — ethanol. Why don’t we all just produce our own ethanol? It sounds crazy — why ethanol? How? Where?
But did you know that farmer’s used to produce it themselves? The fermentation process is quite straightforward. Ethanol can be made from corn, grain, and other vegetation — even rice. It entails microbial fermentation of the sugar. It’s production also consumed CO2 — good for climate change.
And ethanol is far superior than gasoline. It burns cleaner. Has a higher energy density. Provides more thrust in its combustion. Bootleggers would dump their product into their cars for easy get away from the less superior gas-fueled police cars.
Current internal combustion engines can be easily adapted to ethanol — you just need to change the oxygen inlet to fuel ratio. It can be mixed with gasoline, current gasoline contains about 10% ethanol, but it can be more.
But there’s one problem — we’re all not farmers.
Innovation — can small bio-fermenting systems be made for the home? If we can make table top composters, why not ethanol production?
There’s some debate over which is better — gasoline or ethanol. That’s just an issue with R&D.
The use of ethanol is not new — I’m speaking about the DIY/Homemade aspect of it. Is it possible? I believe so. There are a bunch of people who have demonstrated it. There’s even a Wiki for it!
It might seem difficult, unconventional. But what’s the saying “necessity is the mother in invention”.
People need the cars. People need affordable fuel. Something’s gotta give.