Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Ethanol and Corn

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
  • To: "Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>, <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Ethanol and Corn
  • Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:20:40 -0700

Some interesting information from
http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/pdfs/fueltable.pdf

BTU and stoichametric ratings
Gasoline 116090 14.7
Diesel 129050 14.7
Methanol 57250 6.45
Ethanol 76330 9.00
Propane 84500 15.7
Natural gas. 19800 17.2

I forgot to add one more important piece of information. Stoichametric ratio or the Fuel / Air ratio. For spark ignition engines, this ratio is when you have enough oxygen molecules to create complete combustion of the fuel molecules. If you have more oxygen that fuel it is a lean condition, more fuel than oxygen is a rich condition. Running rich means wasted unburnt fuel. Running lean leads to more misfires and again wasted fuel. As you can see from above both ethanol and methanol require significantly more fuel per charge of air.

The small extra BTUs in Diesel are not entirely why Diesel gets better mileage. Higher compression ratios, lower pumping losses, and controlled injection under stoich ratios gets more of the available BTUs out.
Don Bowen KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page