Home Chemistry - making your own fuels

[picaro]

This page explains how to make Sterno from egg shells, vinegar, water and alcohol.

I much prefer cooking with Esbit (hexamine) tablets to Sterno.   According to the wikipedia link, formaldehyde and ammonia form the active ingredient.   Any ideas on what else is necessary to package it into tablet form?

[srqrebel]

Awesome!!!

Anyone know how to make the alcohol for the recipe in the first link (ethanol or methanol), and how easy it would be to make?

If one can make the alcohol with easily available resources, it appears that this would be a 100% self-sufficient, renewable fuel source!

[picaro]

Ethanol manufacturing is another thing I'm itching to try.

You can build an ethanol still.   Any vegetable matter should work, but you'll get better results with certain plants.  This guy is selling plans for $30.  There are probably free plans to be had elsewhere on the net.

The BATF demands that still owners obtain permission slips.    I'm sure that won't be a problem.   

[kola]

I know how to produce methane gas from beans. 

Kola

[srqrebel]

The BATF demands that still owners obtain permission slips.    I'm sure that won't be a problem.   

Certainly. I wouldn't think of doing such a thing without obtaining the landowner's permission first!

"...distilling alcohol without a federal permit is a criminal offense."

But... I don't mind offending the criminals

[John Edward Mercier]

I believe their is a volume allowed for personal usage outside of permitting. But ethanol from most sources consumes more energy than it contains.

[Free libertarian]

 Thanks for the sterno recipe.

I've read a little bit about methane capturing for use as a kind of substitute for propane...wonder if anyone
within a 100 miles of NH has set anything up on a small scale that a reasonably handy person could check out?   Not talking fart sniffing here...I'm talking about bottling pig or chicken poo fumes for use on a small scale homestead.  Something that might be used in a Propane fridge, stove etc.   I've seen articles where a how to on  making a "methane digester" is described but nothing like seeing the real thing or talking to somebody who has actually made one that works.      So...anybody out there, got there shit together?

   

[John Edward Mercier]

There are plans for 'digestors' to produce biogas from animal waste... but the nearsest operating project I can think of involves a landfill.
www.eere.energy.gov/state_energy_program/project_brief_detail.cfm/pb_id=1192

[Scott Roth]

Here's the formula!

Make Your Own Gelled Alcohol Fuel - Canned Heat

Extreme do it yourselfers can make their own gelled fuel at home with by mixing alcohol and calcium acetate (C4H6CaO4).

1. Add 25g of crushed chalk or egg shells (calcium carbonate-CaCO3) to 100ml of vinegar (water and acetic acid - CH3CO2H) and stir for about 5 minutes.  This should produce carbon dioxide (CO2), calcium acetate (C4H6CaO4) and water (H2O) plus leave you with some ft over chalk (CaCO3).  If you are guessing on how much chalk to add, just make sure that there is a little extra after 5 minutes of stirring.
     
2.  Remove the excess chalk by filtering your mix through some filter paper (coffee filter or napkin can be used).  Set a funnel in a jar, place your filter in it and pour your suspension through it.

3.  Mark the level of your solution in its container and allow your solution to evaporate off about half that volume to remove the excess water.  Place your solution in an oven set on low heat or place it out in the sun to dry.  If you went to far - just add the missing water.

Note - if you like, you can dry out your solution completely and store the remaining dried calcium acetate for future use.

4. If your solution isn't already in the container you want your gel in, then pour it in there now.

5.  Add 30ml of alcohol (ethanol, methanol, or isopropanol) to your solution and watch the gel form.  Do not stir.

6.  Once the reaction in complete, pour off any extra fuel.

I'm already on it.  Will let you know the results.

[picaro]

Cool!

[Free libertarian]

   Thanks for the methane digester illustration...agreed just a bit bigger than I'll need but concept is the same. I heard the University of NH in Durham is using methane from the Waste Management site in Rochester.  I think they piped it...must be 20+ miles...good to see that stuff happening.

If we could only figure out a way to pipe all the bull shit fumes
from Washington DC to NH we'd be a long ways towards energy independence, but I digress.
   
  Burning home made ethanol in the old jalopy would be pretty cool too.  I think as prices for gasoline, diesel, heating oil etc. rise alot of the "out there" ideas will start becoming more common. 
  I'm determined to become as energy independent as possible...for now that means using my chainsaw wacking trees for firewood (sweaters indoors) and hoping for sunny days to make solar power.
I'd love to bicycle, but the truth is I'm traveling so much I'm addicted to my car and gasoline, for now.   
 
  Does anybody know if ethanol has any detrimental effect when substituted for gasoline? Can it be mixed with 2 stroke chain saw oil and used instead of gas?     
     
Does anybody know if there is a kerosene substitute? One that could be home made and used in a
portable heater?  I've harpooned all the whales in Grafton, so whale oil is out of the question.

 

[Raineyrocks]

Wow, this post is neato! Thanks for starting it picaro!

[John Edward Mercier]

They have E85 out west, but ethanol has to shipped separately from gasoline and corn-based ethanol isn't very efficient. I don't remember the exact number, but if every arable acre in the US was used to grow the corn... it could only replace a small percentage of gasoline.

It shouldn't be used in large percentages with gasoline designed engines.

You may find a portable heater that can burn alcohol.

[dalebert]

This looks pretty straight forward, but I don't think you'd want something that large.

Information on how it works (a delicious read):
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/AE_anaerobic_digestion.html

I don't know that it would be completely scalable. The design looks like it might require a certain scale to function as intended.

Oh, and if you build that thing, make sure you call Dirty Jobs. They may want to send Mike Rowe over. 

Speaking of Dirty Jobs, they did an episode on fuel made from cooking oil. It was more involved than I thought. The way it was described to me made it sound really simple. Still not completely deterred from wanting to do it though if I ever have the space, and I probably will depending on where I decide to settle. It might be worthwhile to make more than one person needs and sell the extra to other alt-fuel enthusiasts at like half the price of gas or something.

[Free libertarian]

 Alternative fuels for diesel can be as simple as filtered vegetable oil, if you have a two tank system .  I think when Mr. Diesel first started up, his engine ran on peanut oil.  If you can get by all the well meaning socialists, there's a really good fair in Vermont every summer (Solar Fest) that has alot of cool stuff...usually a few vehicles in the parking lot that run on alternative fuels. I talked to a young guy there last year who traveled for "free" in his older Diesel Isuzu Pup pickup and by the looks of it lived in the back...judging by some of the smells in the air I'd say the hemp oil got burned in other ways too.
Getting industrial grade non thc laden hemp legal could be a step in the right direction for liberty loving folks to tackle, but given the policies of "them" it will be an uphill battle...too bad even George Washington approved of hemp...while I'm digressing anybody seen the picture of him crossing the Delaware where he's holding a pipe? I heard he didn't smoke tobacco...holding the pipe for a friend George? Nod, nod ,wink, wink. 

I'm on the fence with an older diesel truck I have, whether or not to convert to straight veggie oil (not bio diesel) ...if I do it will be later this year and I'll let people know how it goes. At $4.00 per gallon for diesel, I've got to do something. 

The pig shit to methane gas thing is something I remain interested in and since I'm getting some pigs
I may ask them to contribute their dung to the cause.  I'm not sure of the chemical difference but isn't "natural gas" that is sold on the market pretty close chemically to methane?  Maybe we will yet see our own version of Barter Town (Mad Max) energy out here in the sticks to supplement the solar.     
  I just paid $23 for a 20 lb propane bottle and will gladly burn pig shit fumes to keep the propane fridge
going if that's what it takes to keep beer cold this summer, although the snow banks will still work for the next few weeks.