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| Subject: Ethanol Washing | |
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Author: Bob P |
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Date Posted: Sun, Dec 16 2012, 11:01:24 GMT In reply to: Alan Gill 's message, "Ethanol" on Fri, Dec 14 2012, 10:07:01 GMT I’ve finished up with lots of unusable (ethanol contaminated) mogas in my search for something suitable for my Rotax 582 Pulsar. And I’ve used the technique you suggested to wash the ethanol out (so I can use it in my ancient Lotus Elan :-) I bought a couple of 25 litre translucent nylon containers (EBay) to do the mixing so I could see what was going on, and to avoid putting water in my jerry cans (rust). Shaking was pretty hard work, and its difficult to know whether/when the water/mogas is mixed enough. So I bought a pump-up 5 litre garden sprayer - the type with a hose to a metal spray wand. I put 1 litre of inkjet dyed water into this, pump to full pressure and set the jet to fine mist. Then I stick the wand into the mogas (in the plastic container), press the trigger and gently stir the mogas until the sprayer is empty. I vary the height of the wand in the container as I stir, and I also spray about 1/3 of it just above the surface so it lands on the fuel in a fine mist. Then I put the cap back on the container, give it a quick shake for good luck and leave over-night. Leaving over-night is very important because it takes quite a while for the super fine water droplets to settle out, and these drops pass straight through Mr Funnel (I know from experience) – although Mr Funnel does catch water drops that have settled out. To retrieve the water under the mogas in the container I have made a siphoning wand – a length of 6mm O/D aluminium tube (Wickes) bent through 180 degrees at one end and with a few feet of clear plastic tube extending from that end. The rigid rod lets me direct it to the lowest part of the container when hovering up the dyed water, and the clear tube means I can stop sucking just before I get a mouthful of alcho-pops (blue dyed water + ethanol). Using this technique the remaining ethanol is less than 0.5% (I can’t detect any but my measuring accuracy is +- 0.5%). If anyone has an “ethanol intolerant” old car (or whatever) and wants to try the above I’d recommend the following: 1) After washing, leave fuel to settle overnight and then re-check it with the standard water test – you can repeat the washing process if there is any ethanol left. 2) Removing the ethanol does slightly reduce the fuel’s octane rating (I’m told removing 5% ethanol reduces it by about 2 rons), so depending on what you are using your washed fuel in, I suggest you use either premium mogas or a premium/regular 50:50 mix. 3) Fit a gascolator and check it for water before each engine start. 4) Using an ethanol free fuel is better (eg BP Ultimate) as it avoids all the washing hassle (obviously not for flying as it’s not EN:228 and so not approved). But if you do finish up with 40 litres of ethanol contaminated fuel it’s a good way to make it usable. Cheers Bob [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |