Couldn't I buy commercial quantities of ethanol and use it in my car?

Question

It occurred to me that people could purchase commercial quantities of ethanol for their cars and simply use it as fuel (homemade E85).

Are there any reasons this wouldn't be possible?

Answer 1

it would be cheaper to make your own ethanol. 100lbs of sugar would get you 11 gallons of fuel grade ethanol. you need at least 160 proof alcohol to run the car on. after that you need to modify your car to remove the plastic from the fuel system, change out any fuel lines not rated for alcohol, and either reflash your computer to run on E85, or install a new computer and a flex fuel sensor so you can run either straight gasoline or E85, or anything in between.

Answer 2

Hey, if you find a supplier ask them if they carry commercial quantities of whiskey that I can use to run my car.  ;)

Answer 3

First of all, you won't be able to run your car on pure ethanol. You'll s***w up your engine. Ethanol does not provide the same amount of combustible energy as gasoline.

Secondly, most gasoline's are already using ethanol. Most are 10% ethanol and at worst 15% ethanol. The trouble with ethanol is that while you use less gasoline, your gas mileage goes down. It would be more efficient to go with 100% gasoline. But the govenment wants less gasoline used. So you cut it using ethanol. And so to is your mileage cut.

Where I work we use ethanol. But it has been treated so it cannot be consumed by people. Its called denatured. We buy it in 5 gallon containers, 20 containers at a time. Its too expensive to run on cars. Not worth it.

Answer 4

I looked at this about a year ago.  To legally do it, you need to have a license thru the ATF for distribution.   Meaning, the state and federal government will want their taxes on it.  That is one of the reasons why distilling your own ethanol is better... No taxes...

Also, why do E85?  If you are doing it for home use, you can control moisture getting into it.  Meaning, the main reason they add 15% gas is to help control moisture getting into the ethanol.  In your case, you can control this, so just go with E100.

Answer 5

It would be illegal in many states.  They don't get the gas tax when you do that.  Same deal with bio-diesel, people get busted for tax evasion every so often.

Answer 6

you can buy it at a ethanol station...without federal subsidy's ethanol cost 1 dollar more than gas to produce...