I'm trying to figure out how to separate E85 fuel into ethanol and gas so I can use only the ethanol!?

Question

I have an Origo alcohol stove in my house that I run off of ethanol, or denatured alcohol (fossil fuel free cooking!). Unfortunately, denatured alcohol is $13/gallon, while E85 is ~$3/gallon. But I don't want to use E85 in my house stove, because burning the 15% gasoline makes for poor indoor air quality. So, I want to know if there is some way to separate the ethanol from the gasoline? Freezing, or evaporation? I have no idea! Alternately, is there another source for 100% ethanol, I'd buy in bulk, in a tank, if I could!

Answer 1

I think the best way is to boil off the gasoline.  Gas boils at a much lower temperature than alcohol, so you should be able to do some kind of distilling to boil off the gas.

Answer 2

You can separate the Ethanol from the Gasoline the same way that Ethanol is separated from water and Gasoline is separated from crude oil.  You have to make a "still" that boils off the gasoline and collects it down line.  Since this is very, very, very, VERY dangerous, I do not recommend trying this at home, or anywhere else for that matter.

There are some stations that sell E100 (actually it is technically E99) where you can get almost pure ethanol.  They are mostly in the Midwest and California, and you have to hunt for them.  You still have about 1% gasoline in the mixture, as gasoline is the cheapest denaturing chemical that has burn properties close enough to ethanol.

Your alchohol stove does not have to burn ethanol.  It is made to burn almost any alchohol if I am not mistaken.  Butenol and propenol should also work well in your stove.

I have found that most of these stoves use a gelled alchohol like Sterno, or some other brand.  If this is not the case, I am sure Sterno or the equivelent can be used in your stove with some modification, either to the Sterno or your stove.

There are also places like Gander Mountain that sell cooking fuel, which is essentially alchohol fuel.  Just look around, because not everything that is an alchohol based fuel is directly labeled that way.

Answer 3

U could use an old cream separator . U may need to run it at a higher rpm ,but it worked well for us in separating lube oil from water and sludge.

Answer 4

Obviously there is another source for ethanol. But I wonder if the bulk needed to get it for $3 a gallon is less than a million gallons.