Buy from a bulk distributor in 55 gal drums? Anyone look into this? I mean gas is so high now, and we're going to E-85 as a cheaper alternative. Why not just cut out the oil company entirely and just go buy from an ethanol manufacturer? Should be cheaper cause you won't be paying road taxes and stuff right? Anyone else think about doing this? Why wait to get it at the gas station. Let's just go buy the cheaper alternative direct from the manufaturer and really put the screws to the big oil companies!!!

 

Well, you'd still have to buy the 15% gasoline to blend in to make it E85. Plus, if the authorities ever got wind of what you were doing, you get busted. They get real, um, unhappy, when you neglect to pay any form of tax.

The upside is you could blend it at any ratio you wanted. You could have E60 if you wanted to. Or you could try E100.

I think there's some sort of "experimental fuel" thing you can get so you can be legal.

It is a good idea though. One that I might just try at some point in the future...

 

Anyone know of sources or prices for bulk ethanol? I don't have the time, space or energy to distill the stuff myself. Just want to get it in drums.

 

Good luck finding an ethanol plant that packages in 55gal drums. All of the ones I have been at load to rail cars and semi tankers.

 

Man, there's got to be a source somewhere. I mean, it's the next coming thing right? It's used as a solvent in manufacturing, as a disinfectant and in labs and colleges. Those places must be able to get smaller quantities from somewhere. Where else could I look?

 

Small quantities would cost more than gas.

 

I know. I found a supplier of lab chemicals. $14.00 a gallon in 55 gallon drums.

Guess what. Even in large quantities it's more expensive than gas. Check out the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

http://ethanolmarket.aghost.net/

Ethanol is at $2.73 / gallon
Gas is at $2.06 / gallon
Unleaded is $2.21 / gallon

So, How the heck can you take a gallon of gas at 2.21, replace 85 percent of it with ethanol at 2.73 and sell it for less than the price of uncut gas?

 

Man I'd really like $2.219 here. Today it was up to $2.759 / gallon.

The magic term here is subsidies.

 

Actually, the $2.219 price is before any road tax is added. It's the commodity price the wholesalers are trading at. So that extra 54 cents is going to your goverment.

 

The government should be in surplus due to the percentage based taxes on fuel.

 

Also it absobs water. You'd have a very hard time keeping it moisture free.

 

I have made quantities of "absolute alcohol" in the lab. It grabs water like crazy and was very difficult to keep "dry". The fuel grade alcohol can't help but have significant quantities of water in it due to the way it is handled and produced. The reagent or lab grade material purchased from a chemical supply house would have only a trace of water but would have to be kept sealed. The amount of water would probably be called out in the chemical analysis printed on the container.

 

I once talked to a local ethanol producer about such a thing, and the pump system they have puts out 300 gallons per minute, and they had no way to slow it down for smaller tanks.
The price right now is high due to MTBE be discontinued, and ethanol taking it's place, so the demand shot up, making the price go high. There are tax breaks in many locations for the ethanol blends as well, which has made it cheaper for a long time. It will be interesting to see if the E85 blends will stay cheap for now, or go high as well, until the supply is more matched to the demand.

 

I am not sure if the easing of the gas formulation rules by Bush will make it any cheaper either.