Alcohol For Home Heating

[weldingrodd]

Does anyone know the actual cost of making alcohol say per million gallons?

It seems that isoprophyl mixes well with diesel fuel and could be made to mix say 50/50 and could easily be used to heat homes  with oil burners.

I think many years ago I read that with a few changes you could burn alcohol in a home furnace.

Also bio diesel should be a good one for home heating being you could store the fuel inside where its warm.Isnt that a major problem not letting it get cold.

Wonder what we could come up with if we did not have one major problem in this country....Corporate Policy and Corporate owned politicians.

With China as the new #1 Corn Exporter on the Globe we better find something to do with all the corn in storage....But I am sure the corporate masters will soon dictate no more planting of corn in US Like everything else ..it will be cheaper to import it

[wdyasq]

IRRC, Isopropphyl alcohol is a pertolium product.  Ethol Alcohol is made from grains or sugar.  The studies I read said it took more energy to make ethyl alcohol than one got from it.

If not for our corporate greed and politicians, we would not have had computers, a good communication infrastructure, subsidized farmers, welefare, good highways, national defence (even if it may be occationally miss-used), water and sewer systems, grid electricity and many of the other pleasures of modern life.

Of course theree would be no need for this board because all energy would be "RE".  But fuel shortages would still occur, famins and floods would happen.  We would just not see it lookining at our slop buckets rather than a TV.  We would complain to our local politician - even if it were a warlord and he would take a decision - or our head.

I'll keep what we have.

Ron

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

If not for our corporate greed and politicians, we would not have had [a bunch of stuff]

Don't forget that it's Evil Oil Companies (TM) like Arco and BP that brought you affordable solar panels.

[Chagrin]

Where did you get your data that China is the largest exporter of corn? Everything I've seen seems to make it clear that the US is #1 in exports, and more importantly production of corn.

[RatOmeter]

Right:

http://www.spectrumcommodities.com/education/commodity/statistics/corn.html

IMO, china will become larger role in grain exports over the coming years but, having seen how a lot of their farming is done, we're safe until their internal economy,  infrastructure and general level of implemented technology improve a lot more (which they are, but it's taking time).

In the meantime, the US is about the third or fourth largest exporter of... wait for it... rice!  In other news, China is the world's largest producer of wheat, but still has to import wheat to meet demand.  The US is 4th largest producer of wheat, but is also the world's largest exporter of wheat.

Fun, fun, those stats.

[weldingrodd]

Lol!! Please dont hold me to it.....But was listening to "talk radio" at noon time and Paul Harvey News came on..Thats where it came from probably some truth to it if not the whole truth.

Paul seems a little confused sometimes but it sounded offwall enough to be true. Rodd

[skravlinge]

I think it will be better to burn the grains, if you want heat. If you want fuel, alcohol is an option. In Brazil most on the cars use alcohol. The energy needed for the still (done in low pressure) comes from  burning the leftover after the sugar is in solution.  Grain can be automated to the stove just as oil, so you will  not have to do so much extra work.

[Gary D]

Have you checked sugar beets? They grow similar to redbeets, but have a high suger content. Were used before sugar cane was massed produced in Florida.... Low input product. Showing my age here lol. Gary D.

[Nando]

The cost of alcohol, in Brazil, one of the largest producers for the automobile fuel industry costs around 30 to 45 cents of a dollar -- I believe they produce  5 or 10 million gallons a day.

Some cars run with 100 % alcohol, like a Ford 1964 model that I think still is produced there.( I may be wrong here )

Regards

Nando

[ghurd]

For the experimenters out there...

You can get dried sugar beets at the 'Feed Store'.

Cheap. Like #40 for $5, if I remember right.

[nothing to lose]

Thanks, that might be a bit cheaper than corn even.

Been so long since I had animals to feed I forget what I was paying now. Still it should have far more sugar and go further I geuss too.

At what temp does yeast die? I think it slows as it gets colder, but heat kills it compleatly. Is there a temp where it dies from cold or does it just go dormant till it warms agian above a certain temp??

Looking and homemade bread I am geussing here it just goes dormant since I can freeze bread dough and it still rises again after thawing out. So a freezer must not kill the yeast at that temp.

I am thinking here of a solar still where it may freeze (or close) at night but reach 90-100F durring the day.