I chuckled quite a bit on that. Definitely fits Verniy's character traits well. Although it would be pretty dang expensive if she were somehow retrofitted for ethanol considering that it takes more energy produce than it gives. But that's from the US side. Maybe those crafty Russians have some super secret distillation technique to let our russophile destroyer run on 80 proof soviet water.
I chuckled quite a bit on that. Definitely fits Verniy's character traits well. Although it would be pretty dang expensive if she were somehow retrofitted for ethanol considering that it takes more energy produce than it gives. But that's from the US side. Maybe those crafty Russians have some super secret distillation technique to let our russophile destroyer run on 80 proof soviet water.
Well you could cheat by directly hydrating ethylene. Ain't green though, since the feedstock is non-renewable. Also not fit for drinking, but that shouldn't be a problem for fuel-guzzling shipgirls.
(That's how they used to make ethanol on an industrial scale anyway. Still is, but EtOH used for fuel are usually sourced from agricultural feedstocks.)
Well you could cheat by directly hydrating ethylene. Ain't green though, since the feedstock is non-renewable. Also not fit for drinking, but that shouldn't be a problem for fuel-guzzling shipgirls.
(That's how they used to make ethanol on an industrial scale anyway. Still is, but EtOH used for fuel are usually sourced from agricultural feedstocks.)
Long ago I tried doing the ethanol fuel hobby stuff to see if I could do it myself using some old waste produce the farmers had lying around (when I used to live near farms). The problem is the licensing and the handling of the still was way too cost prohibitive and the performance wasn't all to great. I ended up running the rest of the gallons I had in a brush burner (instant construction~). I don't drink and wouldn't encourage others to do so, so licencing the still for vodka has zero use to me, but it was a fun little project.
Long ago I tried doing the ethanol fuel hobby stuff to see if I could do it myself using some old waste produce the farmers had lying around (when I used to live near farms). The problem is the licensing and the handling of the still was way too cost prohibitive and the performance wasn't all to great. I ended up running the rest of the gallons I had in a brush burner (instant construction~). I don't drink and wouldn't encourage others to do so, so licencing the still for vodka has zero use to me, but it was a fun little project.
If you want to DIY biofuels (without fancy expensive equipment), the easiest and most cost-effective (start-up costs, that is) way is to use waste vegetable oil (animal fats can also work but they have to be rendered first) and MeOH to produce biodiesel, using lye as the catalyst.
Of course, this isn't purely green, since the MeOH is usually sourced from natural gas.
And I'll bet none of the shipgirls would like it except for Iowa. Especially if the oil is sourced from Mickey D's.
--
Using a food-grade still for bioEtOH is quite cost-inefficient. Moreso if you use pot stills. In industry we use a steam-heated stripper/rectifier (in essence a very efficient column still, which we can get away with because we don't care about food safety or 'subtle flavors' if we're just gonna burn the thing anyway). The resulting azeotrope is then passed over a molecular sieve (usually zeolite) to completely dry it to produce 100% anhydrous EtOH.
I actually did start with cooking oil (and yes, from Micky Ds and some from KFC) initially in part since that was the method touched on in an article I saw when I was in high school about making your own fuel. Also because I couldn't find a farmer at that time who would let me take their unusable produce since they suspected I might be running an illicit moonshine business. Personally, I didn't get very good results with it, although I do know I didn't spend too much time tweaking my process since I later found a farmer who would let me take his scraps. I ended up using the rest of the vegetable oil in oil lamps I made to power my shop, as a filler for the brush burner, and as fluxing agent for a bullet casting machine (I got a couple years of licencing from the BATFE to make ammunition commercially and this pretty much funded a good portion of my college).
Is a column still like a fractional distillation setup? That was how I made mine using some metal shavings (its long spiral shaped and springy) from the machine shop as the filler. I didn't use any food grade materials since I was running on a fuel licence, but I pretty much modeled it form the microscale kits we used in chemistry class. I was under the impression that fractional distillation was less efficient, but helps separate the compounds more accurately for a more pure product since you can dispense the distillate in separate containers as it refluxes back down the reaction chamber. I made a thermal blanket made from aluminum foil and paper towels to help improve the efficiency of the still, but steam sounds interesting.
The idea of dehydrating the product with another chemical is something I didn't even consider. that sounds really cool and probably something I will try if I ever pick this up again. The big problem was just that I did this during the start of the Bush administration so petroleum was so cheap that it became more of a hobby than a feasible method for me, and it took so much effort that I really felt more like I was converting one energy source into another form than I was "producing" it. However, if ever there were to be a case like a terrorist attack that severely cripples our infrastructure, it is nice to know I can produce gallons of fuel so long as I find enough produce. Maybe vodka too, in order to drink your troubles away...
Iowa would definitely approve of ethanol, more so if it was from corn. Vierny probably would want a wheat or potato vodka *ahem* I mean fuel.
As a side note, I heard from some that ran legal drinking alcohol stills that commercial mfg don't actually discard the heads or tails like a hobby still since they run continuous stills and the assumption is that the methanol inside is too low to do anything to you. Kind of scary if this is true, but considering that no one is blinded from getting smashed, it must not be that high of a concentration. Either way, I'm glad I don't drink.
