Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Ethanol / Biofuel

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Ethanol / Biofuel
  • Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2009 08:10:01 -0700

This was sent off by my cat's feet, she thought a head rub was more
important than any other thing my finger were doing.

> The water in the ethenol could probably be addressed by adding
> one can of water remover for gas engines to each tank of gas
> right from the get go.

Most of the gasoline driers are alcohol based. Alcohol has an
affinity for water which is one of the more difficult parts
of home distilling for motor fuel.

> The problem is, at least with carburetors (I refuse to have fuel
> injected and computerized junk in my vehicles <g>) is that
> the jets are need to be bigger.

As mentioned Stoichimetric ration for gasoline is 14.7:1, 9.00:1 for
ethanol, and 6.45:1 for methanol. What this means is that for proper
combustion you need very close to the ratio of air to fuel. Anything less
is a lean condition and can cause misfires, any thing more is a rich
condition and is wasted fuel. You can see from the above you need more than
twice as much methanol as gasoline for proper combustion.

This is a cause of the misunderstanding of alcohol atomization. Large jets
in carburetors spill fuel in a larger cross section and the turns of intake
passages can cause fuel puddling. Both of these conditions make atomization
more difficult. Fuel injectors largely solve these problems by injecting
fuel right at the intake valve so there are no puddling problems and
injector pulse and swirl patterns break up fuel into much smaller droplets.

By the way, computer controlled fuel injections operating on a closed loop
can compensate for the different mixture requirements.

I am glad the world has moved away from carburetors and points, I have spent
too much of my life trying to make both work.

Don Bowen KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page