ALCOHOL IS AN IDEAL HOME FUEL
It’s easy to make at home. (Actually a little too easy for government comfort, so you’ll likely have to get a licence.)
It is very similar to the gasoline or diesel that we now use in handling and application. Because it is liquid, it has about the same toxicity and about the same power per volume. It can also be used with hydrogen peroxide to increase it’s efficiency.
Remember though, it takes energy to make the alcohol. First, the fermenting batch of bio-mass needs to be kept at very close temperature to keep the micro-organisiums alive and healthy; they are what turns portions of the bio-mass to alcohol. Second, the alcohol must be separated from the remaining liquids and solids, usually this happens using distillation. Distillation is where you heat the mixture hot enough to boil the alcohol (about 160°F) and not high enough to boil the water (about 212°F).
Where does this energy (to make the alcohol) come from? I smile as I think of this, because it is the key to practical alcohol production. It is possible to use solar energy to provide all the heat needed to make your alcohol.
‘Super Gas Saver Secrets’ explains several ideas for using environmental energies to make your alcohol, options including solar stills and using winter to freeze the water out of alcohol (I learned this trick when a bottle of wine I was planning to use on a sleigh ride date froze and broke, we had fun anyway).
If you have to burn wood or some other type of bio-mass to provide the heat you need, then you are on a negative energy cycle, you are using energy to make energy. Now there is some advantage to using alcohol in your home or car instead of wood; it is easy to store, clean to use and burn.
The exception to distilation is butyl alcohol, it can just drain it off and be separated with a salt catalyst, (so you don’t have to get a licence to operate an alcohol still). It has about twice the BTU’s per pound as other alcohols. This is the most practical answer I’ve seen for using alcohol. I have the recipe but haven’t written a book on it yet, if anyone’s interested, contact me and I’ll quote a price to make a copy.
Alcohol has been around a long time, both as a drug and as a fuel. I’ll be giving you sources to find out more about home alcohol production as I further update this website. Alcohol can be used to heat homes, cook food and power our ‘modern’ internal combustion engines.