Corn fuel for a tractor

I've read posts about using corn fuel for tractor use and after thinking about it, I find it hard to believe a person can get ahead by making "E85" themselves. If you factor the cost of each step it take to create this fuel, you aren't ahead at all. A person has to factor in his time as well as the following costs:
Prepping the ground
fertilizer
pest control
corn seed
fuel to run the tractor
harvesting the corn
grinding the corn for mash
yeast
heat source to boil mash
heat source to boil down and distill "wine"
and so on
The heat it takes just to boil this down for that amount of time makes it unfeasable unless you have a lot of free wood or something.
It appears that because of the heating to create this fuel, a larger scale would be more profitable but still not probable.

I would like to hear from anyone who has tried this or is doing it and not just speculation that it will work.

I am all for the idea, and would make my own fuel in this way if possible, but would use a blend. Remember, this alcohol fuel is hard on motors that don't have chrome rings - they found that out in the 70's with Gasahol.

At $4/gallon and $5/bu I don't think a person would save much by making it at home. The "proposed" plant that they have been talking about building around here has a deal worked out with the coal fired power plant. They are going to buy thier extra steam. They have not started the dirt work yet but I will let every one know how things go when they get roll'n.

Dave

1, You are confusing methanol with ethanol. Grain ethanol is _not_ hard on engines. Back in the 70's the oil companies perpetuated this myth, and it lives on. Methonal made from petro products is harsh; ethanol made from grain has far more btu, and is not hard on metal at all. A few old style rubber/platic parts may need to be swapped for better materials?

2. You would want to run straight ethanol. Making a blend with gasoline is far more difficult - need pure 200 proof. That is hard to do at home.

3. Don't forget the feed value of the left over mash - it is high protien feed with real value.

4. You need a source of low-cost heat - natural gas for example.

--->Paul

umm isn't E85 still 85% gas ? or is it the other way around ?

E-85 is 85% ethanol. Most of the regualar gas you buy is 10% ethanol...atleast in the midwest...dunno 'bout the corn-less states.

relaurain,
Up to the harvesting/ grinding aren't you doing these things anyway, then selling the corn??
You are still citing oil company propaganda about "hard on motors", lots of university and real life tests disproved this 20 yrs. ago.
The biggest problem is the distillation.

Well one thing is you need a more efficient still.I dont know if it works but I read about one a while back that runs it back through the still until its almost pure.I think it was in Mother Earth News a while back.Another thing is you wouldnt have to use corn,Sugar cane is a lot better,and other stuff,sorgum,sugar beets,and even potatoes work,lots of stuff is better than corn.Sugar cane is supposedly almost 8 times better than corn.Say you made 1000 gallons,if you used sugar cane it would take a lot less than if you used corn.Im thinking it would take 300 bushels to make 1000 gallons of ethanol,Just a guess roughly,and if it was sugar cane divide that by 8 I guess,and you cut a step out of the process.300 bushel would be about 18000 lbs divide by 8 would be 2250 LBS.So I dont know but if my calculations are anywhere close,maybe somebody could ship you a pallet or 2 of sugar cane and use that.Where I might be wrong is that I think it was sugar cane returns 8 times the energy it takes to produce ethanol where corn returns 1 1/2 times the energy it takes to produce ethanol.Even if sugar cane was only half better that would be 9000 lbs of sugar cane to 18000 lbs of corn.To my thinking,if this is the case,it would take less of everything or maybe I am wrong about that but to somehow get 1000 gallons of ethanol maybe you can run the cane through more than once.Seems a little hard to find out anything about it,so that probably means it works real good.Brazil is independent because of sugar cane ethanol and we even import from them to mix with gas,

Seems like on the still in Mother Earth News it made steam and they shot that through to make it faster or something.I saw them explain how the Ethanol plants work on Tv and they use steam the same way,so I guess he has the right idea using steam to speed up the process.

Thanks I was not sure which way it was.