What are you paying for a gallon of ethanol in your area nowdays? From a scientific standpoint ethanol is simply 200% corn whiskey. I bet you could get a buzz off this stuff.

 

I assume you mean 100% (200 proof)? Its tough to have more than 100% of anything

 

I'm sorry I misstated that queastion. Real corn whiskey is at least 80% proof, which means 40% alcohol and 60% water. Cars like their whiskey STRONG, 100% alcohol, which is 200 proof.

 

it's 2.20/gal in PA...i only have one Ethanol station right now....it's like 70C cheaper per gallon for E85

 

Yea, but thats only like 170 proof. I wouldn't drink that.

We don't have any E85 close by so I can't comment on price here.

 

Ethanol has an additive in it that makes in indigestable. I have the pleasure of working in the oil and gas field and actually did a ethanol deal not too long ago. Essentially you are right though the product is essentially straight corn alcohol, but I would strongly advise against drinking it. We used to joke around that once corn ethanol goes to the wayside (to be replaced by cellulosic ethanol i.e. switchgrass within 5-10 years) that we could convert the ethanol plants into massive alcohol production facilities. Now biodiesel on the otherhand is completely digestable, just did one of these deals and when we toured the plant they actually had one guy take a swig of it; it's basically just vegetable oil, some guys make the stuff in their garages. I was told it tastes like azz though, go figure...

 

champ.. good and most informative post.

 

Before we go too far down this road, we may need to add a little info.

The "additive" that makes E85 from the pump undrinkable or "denatured" is straight unleaded gas - 15% or there about. It depends on several factors time of year, who blended the product, where, etc. The addition of unleaded gas helps with cold starting by reducing the vapor pressure of the blend and also satisfies the government requirement that you be poisoned to death if you try to skip out on the alcohol tax. You could just as easily burn Everclear off the liquor store shelf, but the alcohol tax makes it a bit expensive!

As for the "bio-diesel", there are a couple of things that fall under that category. One is simply waste vegetable oil (WVO). Some guys are pouring this straight into the tank - I suppose you could take a swig if you want although I wouldn't want to gulp a mouth full of fresh veg oil, much less some nasty used stuff.

The other "bio-diesel" is actually a methyl or ethyl ester of the vegetable oil. Vegetable oil that has been put through a reaction to make it more closely resemble true diesel oil. "Technically" you could probably take a swig of this stuff too. Although unless the process is pretty clean, you could ingest some of the leftover reactants which could be methyl or ethyl alcohol and sodium hydroxide - really bad news!

Anyway - back to the original question - last fill-up, E85 was $2.75 here in KS.

(Allegedly) because of our flooded refinery down south, Regular has been $3.15-$3.20 and premium has been averaging about $3.45.

 

Another good/informative response. But $2.75? Multiply that by the 1.31 ethanol factor and you get the equivalent to $3.60 per gallon? And for those who profess that ethanol is not 31% less efficient energy-wise even multiplying by a lesser 1.20 factor yields $3.30 per gas/gallon equivalent. NOT much in the way of incentives here to use ethanol now is there?

 

True, but you will always have the tree-hugger group..."But we're burning a renewable resource!!!"

 

I would still run E85 if I had a vehicle that could.....I'm thinking about converting my mud truck to E85 since we just got a station close enough to make it worth my while.

 

Yea, but I would rather give my money to farmers rather than to the towel heads in the Middle East!



"NOT much in the way of incentives here to use ethanol now is there?"

 

E85 in North Houston was $2.50 per gallon on Wednesday when I filled up.

 

plenty of incentive to buy here in the 2nd most rural county in OH- a lot of my good friends are grain farmers.

 

Agree with that 100%.