Make your ethanol-free gas!

[40 Deluxe]

You can make ethanol-free fuel at home using only water! Simple, too! The secret is in the fact that water and gasoline do not mix, while water and ethanol have a great affinity for each other. What you do is get a clear container like those square 5 gallon jugs popular with motorcycle racers. Put in 4 gallons of ethanol-containing gas and add 1 gallon of water Cap it and shake vigorously to mix the gas and water, then let it sit for a few hours. The ethanol combines with the water and the water, being heavier than gas, will settle to the bottom of the jug. What is now floating on top of the water is pure gasoline. You can siphon the gas off or go to the bottom of the jug and siphon the water/ethanol out. Or get fancy and add a spigot to the jug to drain the water junk out.
One caution: 87 octane gasohol (10% ethanol) is made from about 81 octane gasoline, and the ethanol brings the final octane up to 87. To end up with 87 octane pure gasoline, you have to buy 92 octane premium and remove the ethanol from it because they add ethanol to 87 octane regular to end up with 92 octane premium. This is according to a friend who works for a fuel distributor who buys direct from a refinery nearby in New Mexico.

[Ken/Alabama]

Thanks for the information. Will give it a try on a small scale for my mower and small motors.

[Bruce in southern OH]

Good to know, thanks

[HOTRODSURFER]

Hmmm... I will also try it in my lawn mower and small engines first

[BILL WZOREK]

I think I will try it in a clear container / to try to get a measurement of Gas vrs. ethonal at the end.
HEY if I use the left over water/ethonal over several batches then I can through the gas away and have some migthy fine sipping Hooch left behind. no LOL here !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JM 35 Sedan]

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Don't drink that stuff Bill!! We need to keep our Shock Man healthy.

[Tom Morookian]

So, ya don't think gas absorbs water? yes it does. That's why they sell "drygas" as an additive. Guess what it is? Ethanol or Methanol. Without the alcohol, temperature changes can cause the water to "drop out" to the bottom of the tank.

Something about a "circle jerk".

Go to your local airport - buy 100 LL, that's 100 octane with a "low" percentage of lead. Expensive, you bet.

[G.M.]

If you try this don't dump the byproduct on the ground, it don't go away. If anyone wants to know the problems I would be glad to explain. G.M.

[BILL WZOREK]

G.M. All though I am not the worlds biggest tree hugger I was Taught to try to leave this world a better place then we found it.
Yes Please explain !!

[40cpe]

I buy ethanol-free 87 octane for about 20 cents/gallon more than the ethanol stuff. If you loose 10% volume to remove ethanol, I'll save time and money to buy the good stuff.

[2935ford]

What do you do with the water you drain off?

[rotorwrench]

If you test the drained off water you will find more than water and ethanol. This is not good science. You will be removing more than just alcohol and leaving behind more crap that you don't want. Water will make what's left even more unstable and render the octane rating to a diminished unknown.

[34PKUP]

Originally Posted by Tom Morookian

So, ya don't think gas absorbs water? yes it does. That's why they sell "drygas" as an additive. Guess what it is? Ethanol or Methanol. Without the alcohol, temperature changes can cause the water to "drop out" to the bottom of the tank.

Something about a "circle jerk".

Go to your local airport - buy 100 LL, that's 100 octane with a "low" percentage of lead. Expensive, you bet.

Yes, I don't think that gas absorbs water.
That is why you add 'drygas', to allow the water to be dispersed into the gas and eliminated in the normal combustion process.
Otherwise the water would just sit on the bottom of the tank.

[bart78]

Around here you dump leftover fuels and whatever on mesquite trees. They are a bigger problem than polluting the soil. If you knew that the ethanol burnt at a lower temp. You could cook it out in a still. A guy I know that makes his own diesel. Can hear the diesel and get gas out of it.

[rotorwrench]

There are a fair amount of complex hydrocarbons that go into the final batch of fuel that you buy from the pump. Some are very light distillates and some are gasses then there are the complex processes that make the naphtha more efficient in the burn. Some of these processes use catalysts in the conversion and none of the mix gets along well with water. Internal combustion engines don't run well on water contaminated fuel. If you want to take your already less than spectacular fuel and contaminate it further then be my guest but you may notice that the vehicle doesn't run as well as it should and it will likely get unstable even faster than it already does by normal absorption of moisture from natural condensation in the tank.

[deuce_roadster]

Plenty of stations in my area (one 2 miles away) that sell non ethanol gas.

[G.M.]

Originally Posted by BILL WZOREK

G.M. All though I am not the worlds biggest tree hugger I was Taught to try to leave this world a better place then we found it.
Yes Please explain !!

I own 2 commercial properties that were gas stations 30 or 40 years ago. The State of Florida had several clean up types of programs the stations were in. One the owner pays 25% of the clean up and the other the responsible party pays 100%. I have one in both of the programs. The responsible party is Conoco/Philips on one. I bought the other one and assumed the 25% position. This is only on the clean up. Both properties have an area of about 8' X 8' about 6 feet deep. Over the past 25 years the State has done 3 engineering evaluations on both properties on both at a cost to them at about $15,000.00 each. These tests and results are all in binders 1/2" thick on each test These consisted of dry well soil samples and ground water wells for water samples. Both properties the contamination is under the concrete. To define the spot you core drill the concrete with about a 3" concrete drill in a circle around the know problem area. Take soil samples at every foot in depth and sniff the soil with a calibrated sniffer. You keep moving the drill circle in from the outside diameter of the area until you get into the contaminated soil. I have been involved with enough sample holes and can tell if they are just above the minimum allowed or bad petroleum contamination by the smell. Water is pumped from the ground water wells through a 5/16" plastic tube with a aquarium type pump for a certain time then pumped into test tubes, put in a cooler and taken directly to a testing lab. Same with the soil samples. These samples are tested for the amount of various petroleum products. The State is and has been out of money for years for clean up. They get a little influx of money once in a while and go through this testing. Every contaminated site has a site number. My sites continue to be just on the bottom line of the clean up projects. So I get tested and postponed. Instead of coming in and removing 2 truck loads of dirt and replacing the concrete I stay at the bottom of the list. The readings are getting a little lower every time they test. The ground water moves underground usually towards a body of water very slowly. The contaminated area is called a plume and is like a cloud in the sky moving very slowly. Over the past 25 years these have moved a few feet, weakened slightly but are still there. I doubt there was over 3 or 4 gallons of leakage on either site. If the state eliminates all of these sites they wouldn't need the thousands of employee's so my number remains. Knowing exactly where the contamination is and the strength of it and the confined size it really doesn't bother me to much. If it did I would just go in and remove it. On the property that I have to pay 25%. I may do this in the end anyway because it would be cheaper then 25% of what it will cost them. The removed dirt is taken to an incinerator and cooked, this dirt is then sterile and nothing will grow in it for a while. You can also "farm" it. You have to spread plastic and spread the dirt on it and the sun and wind will remove the petroleum. The problem with this is you could contaminate the ground in this area if it rained. It looks like they may just leave this property alone when it gets down to end. So you want to be careful on what you dump and if dumped into the same area it can accumulate. I know most of us dumped small amounts years ago before the problems became aware to us. Over the years I have stopped at any clean up site I ran across and asked questions and looked the various removal procedures. It has been interesting. G.M.

[don35]

I wish non-ethanol gas were only $.20 higher. In central Fl we are paying 4.95 a gallon vs 3.10 for "corn gas"!

[paul2748]

So what are you guys going to do with the water/ethanol mix? Dump it on the ground? Further contaminate the soil and groundwater?

You guy are making mountains out of molehills regarding ethanol. Sure, it may not be the best of fuels, but for the near future you will have it and you should deal with it by fixing your cars so it won't hurt them. This means new gaskets in the carb, new hoses and changing any other rubber parts that are subject to the fuel.

If a new tank is required because you used a liner material that the ethanol eats it, its time for a new tank.

[Rand]

Just today I saw station in south Ga that had a banner that said " non ethanol gas pump #15