With the price of fossil fuels increasing all the time, many drivers are looking to alternative fuel sources to power their vehicles. One such alternative fuel is ethanol, which is widely produced in the United States and Brazil. In fact, much of the gasoline drivers put in their passenger vehicles today already contains at least a small percentage of ethanol fuel. Ethanol is made through a distillation process of sources like corn. With the right materials and ingredients, anyone can make ethanol fuel for less than half the cost of traditional gasoline.
Create a mash of the ethanol material. Cornmeal, soybeans or wheat are suitable to make ethanol and are readily available from most feed supply stores, or you can make your own grain feed if you grow any of these crops at home. Bring 100 gallons of water to a boil in a large mixing container and add 25 lbs. of ground cornmeal, crushed soybean or wheat. Add 6 oz. of yeast and 100 lbs. of sugar. Lightly cover the mixture to prevent contamination and leave the mixture to ferment in a warm place for about seven to 10 days until it stops bubbling.
Distill the liquid mash through a professional ethanol distiller or make your own distiller using a pressure cooker or rice cooker equipped with a steam valve. Pour the fermented mash into the rice or pressure cooker, and turn on the heating element. Fit the steam valve with a tight-fitting trash bag or any type of flexible tubing that you can manipulate so that the opposite end will drain away from the cooker into a separate container. Cook the mash to 173 degrees and allow the alcohol to evaporate out of the mixture through the cooker's steam vent and condense inside the tubing or trash bag. As the condensation collects, the liquid alcohol will drain into the collection container.
Dry the ethanol by removing the water content still present after distillation. Run the mixture through zeolite, which is designed to dry the ethanol and remove the water. Follow the package instructions for proper use.
Use the ethanol as pure ethanol fuel, or you can create an ethanol and gasoline mixture known as E85. E85 is 85 percent ethanol combined with 15 percent gasoline, and is suitable for use in most modern vehicles. Convert the ethanol into commonly used E85 fuel by adding unleaded gasoline to the ethanol.
