Making Your Own Gas E85

I wrote first about making your own gas, so you see it is doable. This is a reminder that this is only for learning, not for trial, as creating your own gas through distilling is illegal. Next, we will follow up with car conversion and greater detail.

Step One: . . . The Conversion Process

We must break down carbohydrate sugars, such as the starch from corn. Create it into “Mash.” Grind or crush the feedstock (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc…). Then dilute and add an enzyme (alpha-amylase) to turn the mixture into a liquid. Once liquified, a second enzyme (glucoamylase) converts the starch into sugar. (If the source is mainly sugar, i.e…rotten fruit, molasses, etc…, the conversion step can be skipped.

Sugar from Costco is the cheapest. You can get a sack of sugar for about 30 cents or so a pound. The math is two pounds of sugar to a gallon of water.

Step Two: . . . Fermentation

Add yeast and make it into a beer (wine) type solution.

Step Three: . . . Distillation

The beer (wine) type solution must be run through a still to extract the alcohol from the solution.

Step Four: . . . Filtration

The ethanol now needs to be filtered to eliminate excess organic volatiles.

Step Five: . . . Dehydration

The ethanol needs to be “dried.” After the distillation process, there will be a certain amount of water in the ethanol you have just created – this can be dried by running the ethanol through Zeolite, a readily available product for drying ethanol.

Step Six: . . . ethanol Into e85

Now simply convert the pure ethanol into e85 by adding 15% unleaded gasoline to your ethanol. e85 is nothing more than 85% ethanol mixed with 15% gasoline.

e85 F

lex Fuel Vehicles are becoming more and more popular as the gas prices continue to rise. e85 will be a major relief for the United States fuel problem.

Making your own ethanol will require some initial investment, but the rewards will be very beneficial. You can make your own e85 for around $1.00 a gallon if you buy the corn and for about $.60 a gallon if you grow your own corn.

Many newer models are equipped to handle both gasoline and e85 ethanol. You may even be driving a flex-fuel vehicle now. There are three ways to check if you are driving a flex vehicle. Look in your owner’s manual, check in the fuel door for the e85 sticker, or contact your dealer and have them run your VIN to see if your vehicle is compatible. To be on the safe side. Now simply convert the pure ethanol into e85 by adding 15% unleaded gasoline to your ethanol. e85 is nothing more than 85% ethanol mixed with 15% gasoline.

We will walk you through the know-how step by step.