Word: alcoholism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Wonder Fuel that can not only drive cars, heat homes and produce electricity but may also be brewed out of kitchen garbage? All this is possible with Ch 2 H 5 OH, which is better known as grain alcohol or ethanol, the stuff that provides the kick in gin and whisky. Ethanol was used decades ago to power early automobiles, only to fade when plentiful supplies of cheaper gasoline became available. Now that gas is getting scarce and costly, the fuel is coming back...
Best known is the diluted variant called gasohol, the blend of 90% gasoline and 10% alcohol that is sold in the U.S. at more than 1,000 service stations, and is widely available in Brazil in an even richer mixture of 20% ethanol and 80% gasoline. Now, however, a number of alky-boosters are touting the virtues of using the ethanol undiluted. Besides being out of OPEC's control, the fuel can be made in backyard stills that can cost as little as a few hundred dollars to build and almost nothing to operate...
Modifying an engine to run on ethanol requires only simple carburetor adjustments. One recent convert is Manhattan cabby William Bly, who last month logged more than 1,000 miles on alcohol from a still built by The Mother Earth News, a North Carolina counterculture magazine. Says he: "The car ran beautifully-no knocks, no stalls, no nothing...
...adds a couple of commonly available brewer's enzymes (to speed up the conversion of starch into sugar) and some baker's yeast (to bring about the fermentation). After fermentation is complete, which takes less than a week, the mess is dumped into a still, where the alcohol is boiled off. Basically just moon shiner's gear, the device consists of a steel drum with a chimney-like funnel and a condensing vat to catch the distilled alcohol. A bushel of vegetable matter can yield two to three gallons of fuel. A small still may produce...
...federal permit is needed to run a still, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms issues one routinely when the applicant posts a bond promising not to sell or drink the alcohol. Automakers approve of ethanol power, but caution that it does present some problems. Though it has a higher octane level than even high-test gas, ethanol contains somewhat less overall energy to the gallon, and the mileage it yields is up to 20% less...