What You Need to Know About Making Ethanol Fuel

Ethanol fuel is a plant derived fuel which can be either mixed with gasoline, or used by itself for use in almost any internal combustion engine. This means that cars, trucks, boats and even lawnmowers can use ethanol as their fuel source. Ethanol has several advantages over gasoline, with the two predominate advantages being that it is a renewable energy source, and it reduces pollutants drastically.

Making ethanol fuel is not a difficult task, and almost anyone can legally make their own. Ethanol fuel is made in a distillation process which works on the fermentation of vegetable matter. Corn, sugar cane and potatoes are but a few of the candidates that are ideal for making ethanol fuel. Ethanol fuel can also be made from the scraps left over from these vegetable materials.

One fact that most people do not know is that the first automobiles which were introduced did not run on gasoline, but alcohol. This was also true of farming tractors and large industrial size engines. Gasoline was not used until it became more widely available and the cost of producing the ethanol alcohol increased.

Ethanol alcohol burns so clean that it can be used in closed rooms to burn lanterns or stoves and it will leave no toxic or odorous fumes. It has been used as a fuel source for well over a century. It is derived from plants, and the by product of burning it is the release of carbon dioxide, which plants need to breathe themselves. This is opposed to gasoline which when burns produces carbon monoxide, which is deadly to most life forms on Earth. Ethanol also has a much higher octane rating than gasoline, giving better performance when used in automobiles.

More and more individuals have chosen to begin making their own ethanol fuel to power their private vehicles. It is estimated that one acre of corn will produce enough ethanol fuel to power a low mileage per gallon vehicle approximately five thousand miles. This gives many individuals, not all of them farmers, plenty of incentive to make their own ethanol fuel. Some use it as a fuel on its own while others use it to stretch out the gasoline they use by mixing it with their gasoline.

The equipment used in making ethanol fuel is the same type of apparatus used to make drinking alcohol. Anyone who wishes to begin making ethanol fuel must first get a permit to do so from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms ("BATF"). Getting a license to produce your own ethanol fuel is not too difficult, and it usually only takes a month or so to hear back from the BATF.