Anyone running on Ethanol in Ireland ?
(copied below from Forum on the www.pacificnorthwestflying.com site.)
For interest sake, this was posted on the Yahoo Cessna 150_152 Forum:
A Cessna 152 has been converted to run on ethanol, not E85 or AGE85,
pure ethanol. Fuel cost is between $1.50 and $2.00 a gallon. They added
a boost pump, an injector, and anodized the insides of the aluminum fuel
system - and it turns out, that wasn't needed because there's an
anti-oxidation additive which goes into the fuel and does the same
thing. The airplane could be switched back and forth between avgas and
ethanol in flight with no problems!
The otherwise stock 152 produced 126 hp, since FAA prohibits more than a
5% increase in hp, the engine was derated to 113 hp.
A Cessna 150 has been converted to run on ethanol as well - West
Virginia University did it (more recently than the 152 above), again, no
big deal, they added a boost pump and a toggle switch - boost pump is
used on takeoff, turned off in cruise. They also changed the main jet in
the carb. No corrosion problems there either.
In NEITHER case did the ethanol attack the rubber seals in the fuel
system - and even if it did, there are perhaps half a dozen total. That
old bugaboo turns out to be nonsense.
Down sides - 1) Range is reduced 15% or so. If you have the long range
tanks, this is not a problem, I can't sit in my 150 for six hours
anyway. Standard tanks means perhaps half an hour's less range.
2) Ethanol absorbs moisture, which isn't a problem unless it
precipitates out again. Careful preflight and enthusiastic use of the
quick drains should fix that. Make sure the fuel cap gaskets are good, too.
3) Final problem is of course certification . . . but if we could build
on the work done above, we could solve that.
Someone is offering a self-contained ethanol distiller in a shipping
container for about $10K, delivered. It makes pure ethanol at a net cost
of about $1.00 a gallon. If avgas costs $5.00 a gallon, that's a savings
of $4.00 a gallon, at five gallons an hour, you can save $20 for each
flight hour. Break even is therefore only 500 flight hours - so if we
got three or four 150 drivers to go in together on this, break even
might be a year or so . . . and we'd fly lots more because we could
AFFORD to!
Ethanol isn't really "green", and use of croplands (particularly corn)
to make ethanol is one of the drivers of high food prices, but despite
these inconvenient facts, ethanol has very good press these days, and
with some research and effort might solve the fuel problem for us.
Eventually, they'll switch to non-food sources of cellulose
(switchgrass, which is a weed, for one, perhaps even Kudzu), and then
we'll be all set.
Lets do some thinking about this . . .
And check this out:
http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guida ... enDocument
