A bit of info to lend some understanding. In CA I was a successful businessman and after 30 years there moved (sold company). Now I work for the man, to tired and lazy to pioneer a new company in my old field. And….. I’m a kook when it comes to science and how it can be applied to DIY. There’s always a better way and I look for that, hence business success. So the entrepreneur in me is and always will be alive. Having revisited my youth with the working on autos and wanting to go fast again, well economics are not in my favor and leaning worse every day- lately. Im frugal and my $$ where worked very hard for in CA. If I can make my money stretch…. Or compound….. woohoo.
Now unless you really sit down and invest maybe 200 hours in alcohol production research, polysaccharide study, enzymatic action, what a BTU is and crunch numbers on the distillation process (read: not kitchen sink or backyard still spirit production) then you will not have a patent base to operate or think from. Disinformation abounds for alcohol. Mainstream is just that, like everything else mainstream ( read between lines), outliers are a problem not a solution.
I would be an outlier and even so in the Fuel Alcohol Producers group.
600 gal per acre can be produced over a 60 day window of process annually, with Sorghum stock and only processing available sugar, not cellulose. Ethanol is subsidized from two directions, govt corn sub and plant sub. And that’s because input/output energy ratios are very tight——- in large scale billion gallon plants and——- hobby distillers. Hobby work toward edibles with character and process is refined for that, but at the expense of BTUs and I/O ratio upside down. It’s the untaxed shiner cash or the taxed legit microstill operator charging enormous $$ for good booze that makes it “profitable”. Vice versa for large scale production. To get 10000 gallons of 20% mash to 195 deg F, you need serious BTUs and to stay in EPA guidelines for plant and for mathematical efficiency, you must belabor over waste and emissions and the worst, output per hour. Output per hour (for a high volume to feed the planets cars) must be very high and that’s costs more BTUs and more processing. Potentially multiple passes of distillation! That’s what last week a 29000 gal order (rail car) was at 2.26/gal for Anhydrous, CDA with 1% gasoline and that includes the gas cost. Big or small, all are held to formulas 18-20 or 28-A for Complete Denature or Slight Denature as applies.
But……. A farmer has a unique ability to operate somewhere in the middle as space, time, yield, BTUs and feedstock all are controlled and much is generated for FREE on site. A tomato at the store cost 1.99/Lb but not to the farmer, his cost was .32/Lb. It’s the middle man that raises the price. If the farmer eats his own tomato then he eats pretty cheap.
M81 and Dale variety Sweet Sorghum are about $20/acre at seeding rate of 2lb/acre. Yield of the 78% juice by weight of the 25 ton of material gives about 3000 gallons per acre feedstock. With sugar content at 18% as a standard on descent soil, ok that’s cheap sugar.
Sugar- not starch. Corn=starch. Sorghum and sugar can= sucrose/glucose/fructose.
Now ethanol plants run corn because they can run 25/7/365 from billions of bushels in elevators from the Midwest and my area. But they must cook the starch out, convert to sugar and that costs BTUs (which equal big money). Sorghum only grows for 120 days and has a 60 day harvest window for 13-18 percent sugar content varying with maturity. And the juice once harvested has a shelf life of 5-6 days where it’s concentration goes up and natural enzymes further breaks sucrose into its shorter friends (that’s good). So I’m 5 days you have pretty much just gluc/fruct.
You can’t store the juice except by freezing and refrigeration or pasteurization at 80C and storage below 35C and shelf life is roughly 21 days, then nature will get it.
Thus: Sorghum is NOT a viable feedstock for large scale ethanol production for general automobile use.
For a farmer in Mid Aug to end of September, the 7 day production rotation is viable.
A 1/4 to half acre is easily distilled (time considered).
That fits the feedstock lifespan, harvest schedule, full time farmer schedule, and…… the end of summer. Summer is HOT in the Midsouth. Memphis is the armpit of the nation, literally.
BTUs is the issue.
Energy I/O must be above 1.25 to be profitable and that “could” be difficult.
Fast forward to today: Solar (PV and Hydro capture), waste oil burners, and another couple of options- all will produce enough of the 30kW of heat energy to run a modest 100 gallon still. There is no cooking involved, it’s straight to fermentation for feedstock.
I have been fighting to find BTUs for that 60 day production window. That 60 days is really more like 90 depending on the strategy employed.
To reduce BTUs, since Reid vapor pressure changes with ambient atmospheric conditions, alter the conditions. Pull a vacuum of 28 inches (cheap and easy, little BTU spent) and the boiling point of Ethanol drops from 173 to 85 F.
How difficult is it to raise 68F water to roughly 20 degrees above??? By modulating the vacuum value against the natural ambient air temp, one is able to pivot the system around the condensation water temp.
Condensation at a EtOH temp of 100 degrees must be down near 50F and that means active cooling and BTUs to cool the water. But as air temps rise (August in memphis, 95F and 105 pct Humidity) the cost to produce cold water rather than room/ambient temp water is high. But since vacuum controls boiling point, the vacuum is adjusted proportionately to the “condenser water temp”. That sets the general ratio of boil heat/vapor production temp to condenser temp.
The boil temp is variable and always under 140F, far below the natural 173F and far below it’s needed 200F input.
This is a tire way balance act. Air temp sets the vacuum protocol, vacuum sets the burner input. Then reflex column behavior is evaluated and minor adjustments occur as typical with a reflex column.
With a proper still that has a large “home” to reside it. (Steel building), one can produce on a continuous feed process, 10 gal/hour Hydrous Ethanol at 90-95% concentration.
One gallon per 100 is required to denature (any gasoline avail).
Please don’t go down the road of “water is bad”, the Swedes analyzed the Big Oil BS for a decade of research and ANY value of 85% or greater Ethanol mixed with any value of 14% or below water and 1-14% gasoline will NOT phase separate all the way down to -25C. So screw water is bad- see Brazil for how good Hydrous Ethanol works for cars, they fuel the entire fleet from it. And the at water raised perceived octane value to 120. Don’t care if you burn 38% more—— at $1.25/gal I’ll take it.
Plus, one day when I’m not sidetracked by this crap and the world falling apart, maybe the turbo ranger will see benefits from the deal.
Scoff if you may— it’s ok. I have the NSSPPA support now behind the work. I’m not alone, Univ of Miss, Purdue, and UInv of Arizona all are on the Sorghum bandwagon.
That brings me to the Ranger part of the post:
Id like to get thoughts on using a 2.3L Lima as the water heater (and oil too.) using the engine as the heat plant, on gas for now, at idle only (750 rpm). Runs are 12 hours long. Certainly in an hour a Lima at idle would raise and maintain in closed loop operation, its CHT high enough to be able to heat 10 gal of “coolant” to 140F with a preheated recipient vessel starting at 80F.
Oil shouldn’t be cold, engine life and oiling are a problem so use of the engine oil path for heat extraction is secondary and extreme.
Using EFI recalibrated to a very lean,,minimal level and advancing timing as far as tolerable should raise CHT sufficiently.
The running engine can drive two alternators each producing 50A at idle. The flywheel can be used to drive a low RPM pto (gear reduced to 12 RPM for a process that requires high torque).
Frankentruck, my 1990 Red Ranger twin plug is destined for bothe the ethanol/microsquirt conversion but also to be the test bed as a heat source for a vacuum distillation process.
Anybody think an idling 1990 ranger 4 banger all leaned out and pissed off, well inside it’s operating temp…. Can give me 140F water continuous while feeding a low loss/light thermal load??? Anyone…..
Now it’s on topic. That is my last post on the subject as the above is very close to being far enough off topic to be a bother for some/most and it was not my intention to deviate from RANGER stuff. But it IS Ranger stuff as I need that ranger to now be driveable as a guinea pig and also act as a heater!
Again, I will not post again on Alcohol. Above should be sufficient to end my input but comments can and will come.
I am thankful for the RangerStation and it’s members. You have helped me get Frankentruck running very well and given me a ton of very VALUABLE information.
Mike in Memphis!
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