Not that I condone or suggest this- but is illegal moonshine viable as auto fuel? Could people make their own fuel at home from scrap biowaste?

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The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. ~ Ernest Hemingway ...

Ethenol as a fuel? Brilliant.

Actually; I've heard that it is completely legal as long as you render it undrinkable. (add some gas or something)

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

so in a word or two ....duh oh? wonder how many people are making it for fuel///

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The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. ~ Ernest Hemingway ...

Here; I found you some details.
Fill'er Up - With Moonshine

100 Gallons of mash yields 10 gallons ethanol
at least 190 proof... virtually undrinkable.

I also wonder about different methods of boiling and cooking mash. That might negate any savings depending on the fuel used.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

scrap wood to cook the mash with???

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The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. ~ Ernest Hemingway ...

Yep; that's why I said it depends. But; as I have experienced, and was once told, "there is no free firewood." (refering to the labor and other related costs in gathering, cutting, chopping, aspirins, etc)

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

HI, Brazil has been doing it for quite some time, and much improved their balance of payments. And they made a nice little auto industry for themselves as well. Brilliant !!!! Your inquiry has a solid and proven foundation.
No question.
Best regards,
Dan

But the difference is scale. You can gain a lot of efficiencies if it's done on the scale that Brazil does. But; there's only so much you can do with a backyard still.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

As far as wood goes, you tool up for it. Chopping wood went out with
the Mongolfier's balloon. Up here, we use log slpitters, and 30 inch circular saws. Efficiency; that's what it's all about.
Keep your powder and your wood dry.
Dan

And you run those on electricity from a generator run on your own moonshine?

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

If the goal is energy efficiency, rather than time efficiency, I can guarantee you that chopping it by hand is more efficient than either log splitters or circular saws.

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WANTED:

Schroedinger's Cat

Dead And Alive

They're using sugarcane, it's a perennial grass that has an extreamly high sugar content(duh), ethanol is made by a process of the sugar breaking down into alcohol using yeast(simlified, not going into detail)... it's damn near the best thing to use for producing said bio fuel, it is cheap to grow, cheap to harvest and produces a heavy volume of high grade material.

Ethanol can be made from any matter that can be broked down into sugar and I think that includes Soylent Green but that process would be costly.

Hi, If you try....."TRY"......to heat your house with an axe, and next year
you use a 30 inch circular saw, you will beome a convert to the saw....
real fast. It does involve some....'some' fuel, but it is worth it.
Your time is worth something, and a cord wood saw will go through an eight inch log in less than three seconds without going to the chiropractor.
This is model T technology. For myself, I utilize an old 40 HP Volkswagen
motor with an adapted flat belt drive to the arbor. Total cost:$100.
No radiator, and it runs off an outboard motor tank. At 1600 RPM, it is quite economical. Even John Henry would like the cordwood saw.

Best regards, Dan

Hmm, maybe if you made a steam powered circular saw. The beauty of an external combustion engien is it can burn almsot anything that burns.

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Hi, This has been done. You can make a custom camshaft for a VW and make a steam recip power plant (using synthetic oils ) that will do the job. It doesn't take extraordinary high pressure . The technology is simple enough.

Dan

At what cost?

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Well, You can mechanize the process and put them out of work,......or ....
they can learn how to share. Economics and honesty in government are beyond the scope of this OP.

Dan

Another good producer is Jerusalem Artichoke, with a yield of about twice of what you'd get from corn or sugarbeets.
Has the disadvantage that it's the roots that's used, so it needs modified machinery, on the other hand it has the advantage that with mechanized harvest, there's enough pieces left in the ground that it automatically comes back the next year. (several US states has it classified as an agressive weed)

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

Or modify it to burn wood gas(produce gas), as was a standard car mod in Denmark during WWII, from the numbers I've seen, 1000kg of wood is equivalent to about 350l of gas.
Compare the price of 1 ton of wood chips (I've seen numbers around $50-$100/t delivered) compared to the $400 the equivalent gasoline costs and see how much you save and how fast the mod is repaid.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

Not news to any of my elder relatives from West Virginia who grew up during the Depression....




Remember that Von Braun used alcohol and liquid oxygen in the V2 rockets!
Moonshine = Rocket Fuel!